Chisel
by thir13enth
Summary: Guns and girls don't always mix: with Sasuke gone and Naruto throwing himself into battle, Sakura finds herself leaning on the shoulder of a rather peculiar neighbor that gets her into a lot more trouble than she could ever imagine. SakSai
1. moving in

**So first some quick facts about the story before you jump into it:**

**1. It's AU, but I use a lot of the same concepts, ideas, and character relationships given by Kishimoto. I just made Konoha a country of Planet Earth 2012.**

**2. The plot's already planned out but not completely written out; it's not going to be abandoned (I just procrastinate a lot).**

**3. The story title...was chosen almost randomly. It fits the plot vaguely.**

**4. The first few chapters are fluff, but there's lots of details and foreshadowing that the more astute reader can have fun with. You guys should definitely PM or review me what you think is going to happen next! :)**

**Anyways, those planning to stick around with me are going to be in for a long ride. I'm actually curious about the results of this story. The couple SakuraSai isn't too canon, so I'm seeing how far this story will shoot.**

**Aite peeps, enough with my rambling. Let's get on with this story. Here goes nothing!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter One:**

**moving in**

* * *

Sakura woke up before her alarm that morning.

Her eyelids opened, half-dazed, but she quickly snapped into consciousness and searched frantically for her cell phone. It was usually right by her pillow, but she had fallen asleep while texting Ino the night before and in her restless sleep wasn't sure where her phone might have fallen.

She discovered it moments later and cancelled the alarm before it went off, with a mental sigh of relief.

Sakura had woken up about 14 minutes before her alarm would go off at 6:30, and looking down at the half finished text message, finished typing that up and sent it to Ino's number. Ino would probably curse her out later for sending a message that early in the morning, but she knew her pig of a friend was a deep sleeper anyway.

Getting out of bed, she stretched and got ready for her morning run.

**divider**

She guessed she liked it in the morning, however tiring the running was; it was always nice and peaceful and no one was really awake during that time to actually bother her with anything much.

But what surprised her was that one of the 'On Sale' signs down the street was now gone, a car on the driveway instead. The car was full and someone was at the trunk, sorting out the items. Boxes lay at his feet, and Sakura assumed that he was moving in.

She thought it to be friendly to greet the new neighbor, winding her jogging down to a walk before reaching a finger out to tap his right shoulder.

Sakura was startled—twice. Once because he turned around before she tapped him and once again because he looked like—

"Hi."

Sakura pushed aside her surprise and half stuttered, "Hey," and recalling the rest of what she was planning to say, "Um, just wanted to say 'hi', I live about a few houses down, and, uh, are you moving in?"

"Yeah." He stood up, lanky body surpassing Sakura by a few inches. "Nice to meet you," and he gave her a brief but firm handshake.

"Sakura," she introduced.

"Sai," he replied.

And before awkward silence could claim the rest of their conversation, Sakura commented, "You're up pretty early. I mean, usually people don't do work until way later in the day, especially moving and those sorts of things."

He shrugged. "I'm awake with nothing much else to do." He took another box from his trunk and stacked it on top of another box that was on the driveway cement. "You said you lived around here?"

"Four houses down." She pointed to her sedan when he looked up to see where she was gesturing. "The one with the dark blue car."

"Ah," he replied, returning to lifting boxes, and after a moment, added: "Well, you're a hypocrite."

Guaranteed, Sakura wasn't ready for such an insult in her usually quiet morning. "…What?"

He turned back around to her, pale complexion (she'd say bleached paper white face, but that would be exaggerating) and black eyes locking on her. "I mean, you're up so early, too," he explained. "Running," he clarified.

The small smile he added afterward seemed forcibly tacked on.

She smiled back, with a small laugh. "I just, you know, do what I can to get myself going."

He gave a noncommittal sound. "That's nice of you, though, to introduce yourself."

Sakura took that as a step towards good-bye-have-a-nice-day. "Right, I'm probably going to be late," she looked at her watch, but two minutes wouldn't severely harm her residency at Konoha General Hospital. "Well, I'm sorry if I was interrupting you from anything—"

"Oh, no, it was nothing—"

"—but nice to meet you! I'll see you around!" she exclaimed, beginning to step back and away. "Have a nice day!" she added before running off, relieved that she didn't have to look at this new neighbor's semblance to a friend she once used to know.

**laterthatday**

"Oiii, Tsunade-sensei!" Sakura groaned to herself, flopping onto her bed when she got home around 6 in the evening.

Geez, she was just a resident.

Well then again, residents always did more work than doctors did, a rite of passage that all physicians had to take.

Still, that woman was crazy.

Sakura stared up at the ceiling before she looked again at the time, sighed, and gathered herself up for her evening job. Walking out of her house (rather a small duplex that she was renting for a relatively low price because Kakashi-sensei, one of her undergrad professors and also the one who recommended her to be able to work with the renown Tsunade-sensei, had connections with other alumni and found the property for her), Sakura grabbed her stack of mail and plopped them in the passenger seat before driving out.

She noticed that—what was his name? Sai?—her new neighbor seemed to have settled in already. The boxes were gone, and there was only a small dim light emitting from his front window.

Well that was quick.

Then again, she remembered that he didn't have too much stuff with him to begin with, having just come in a single car—a black one, she noted as she drove past. She conjured an image of him from memory; he seemed young, maybe late twenties at most (and that was pushing it), and probably was a student somewhere or post grad doing something.

At the stoplight of the block, Sakura reached over to shuffle through the spam mail and bills that she had placed in the passenger seat. Her hands nudged an ad off the top of another envelope and she gave a quiet gasp when she saw the familiar male handwriting.

Screw the green light; she had to read this.

Sakura, as quickly as possible, tore open the envelope, seeing nothing on the top left corner for a return address and trying not to damage the letter inside. She flipped the letter open, but the creases prevented her from reading the actual letter while she pressed the gas pedal after noticing another car coming down the street.

Discouraged, she threw the unread letter back to the side and now drove anxiously to Ichiraku.

She parked in the employee area and shut down her car before reaching back to the letter, noticing the letter's date from about two weeks earlier.

_Sakura!_

_Naruto, _she greeted back mentally, reading the exclamation mark. Ever optimistic, wasn't he?

...

_Sakura!_

_Everything's going fine. Quit worrying about me! I'm safe and sound, as ever, believe it!_

_Well actually, no, the only thing that's being shitty is the General. We call him Frog General but his real name is Jiraiya something or the other. He's just making us do some ridiculous drills that I fail to see the point of, especially since we're wasting our energy and time stalling around when the other army groups have already headed out to the fronts—like, the REAL ones. But that's all that's really happening with me, not much else going on but testosterone and muscle building. I'd say I was homesick but I've made a good deal of friends here in the new unit so it's all pretty cool. Just do me a favor and make sure no one is hijacking my apartment while I'm out here; it'd suck to come home and not have a bed anymore. I forgot whether or not I locked the door before leaving, and you know where I hide the spare keys._

_Glad to hear about your acceptance into the residency with what's-her-face! I knew you could do it! Just don't stress yourself out too much like you always like to do; you're going to get wrinkles imprinted on your face—even more than CHIYO-sensei! Anyways, tell everyone I said 'hi' as usual._

_Hugs and stuff,_

_Y'already know who has THIS bad of a handwriting_

_..._

Sakura couldn't help but give a small smile when seeing the ink curl at his last word.

But, sorry Naruto, she couldn't help _but _worry about him while he was out there.

**aflashback!**

_Naruto downed the last of his fourth bowl of ramen noodles, scooping the remains out into his mouth using the wooden chopsticks that Sakura had handed over to him. He gave a hot sigh of satisfaction when he lifted the bowl from his mouth and stacked it on top of the other finished ones._

"_Another shot?" Sakura asked, stirring spoon in her hand._

"_Nah, I just wanted to visit you at the shop. Is Ayame-chan still making you do all the work while she flirts around with Kaka-sensei?"_

"_Pretty much," Sakura rolled her eyes and looked behind her to see if said person was there to overhear their conversation. "That's a big snack for just a visit though," Sakura pointed out._

"_Well, kill two birds with one stone, right? You know I can't cook for shit. I can't even tell if milk is spoiled and I burn water."_

"_True," she agreed, and reached over the counter to fetch Naruto's empty bowls._

_Naruto stopped her with a hand and stood up to take his bowls over to her sick behind the counter himself, even taking the sponge and cleaning the dishes._

_Sakura smiled to herself, touched._

_Naruto did too much for her, going out of his way all the time for her ever since she met him in primary school. He was truly a good friend, someone that stayed for the entire journey._

_Unlike some other friend—_

"_So," Naruto suddenly blurted in the middle of the clinking in the sink._

"_Hm?"_

"_I just wanted to tell you something."_

_Sakura paused in thought for a moment. "…go ahead."_

"_Just…don't get upset or something. Promise me that."_

_She breathed out sharply. "Naruto, if this is something that you know I'm not going to—"_

"_No, just hear me out, okay?" and Sakura shut her mouth while Naruto continued, "I've decided to join the Army."_

_She said nothing for a moment, before saying, "Weren't you already in the Army Reserve?"_

"_Yeah, but I just volunteered to actually go out into the—"_

"_The frontlines?" Sakura gasped. "Why? Why on earth would you think of putting yourself out like that? Do they need you out there?"_

_Naruto shut the water. He sighed and turned to face her. "Regardless of what's on KonohaTV, there are always people fighting out there for us. They can _always _use the extra help, and I can provide it." He held up a hand to motion for her to let him finish talking. "I mean, I'm just taking a year off before going into the workforce. I figured that I have nothing better to do and nothing else is going to make me be stronger than the war experience."_

_She tried to keep her answer as supportive as possible, even though she was intensely worried about Naruto's decision. Wasn't being in the Reserve risky enough? They could call him to battle at any time if he was enlisted in that program! And now, he was taking the job itself even though they hadn't called him? Sakura guessed that maybe Naruto didn't want to risk being taken away without warning, but even then…was that a real reason to volunteer himself out there?_

"_Well, where are you going? And how do you know that you're going to be back in a year? They might have you there for like…I don't know, more time than a year."_

_Naruto shrugged folding his arms over his chest and leaning against the sink. "I don't know where I'm going to be assigned. I…I don't really know how to explain it. I just feel like…I'd be a better person if I went out there and fought for Konoha myself. I don't know, that's just how I feel. And I hear all these stories from veterans and they cursed shit about the battleground, but I guarantee you that each and every one of them didn't regret taking that step forward to fight. It's like…honor, Sakura, I don't know how to explain it. I just want to be part of that. I want to feel that." He looked back up at her. "You understand?"_

_Sakura honestly shook her head no, but added, "That's okay. You do what you want."_

_He said nothing, but then shook his head as well. "No, you're disapproving."_

_She more vigorously shook her head. "No, I'm fine with your decision. I'm just worried about you."_

"_Please don't. You worrying is the last thing I want."_

**backtothepresent**

Sakura placed Naruto's letter aside, carefully back into its envelope and stepped out of her car, locking it before heading toward the back employee entrance of Ichiraku, where she held a part-time job in the weekday evenings, just to get a head start in financial balance rather than starting from a pure zero after all her medical training was done.

She needed to keep herself occupied anyway.

"Sakuraaaaaa!" Ayame greeted when Sakura opened the door to the kitchen.

"Hey," Sakura replied as she reached for an apron and tied up her hair. "Naruto-kun says 'hi'. He says 'hi' to your 'tou-san, too, I guess."

"A letter back from him?"

Sakura let out an affirmative grunt.

"He's doing fine?"

"Apparently."

"That's good to know," Ayame said, picking a bad noodle out of the boiling pot. "Could you do the counter today? I feel like cooking today."

Sakura headed over to the front, but seeing that Teuchi-san had taken care of the orders already and that there were no customers in line at the moment, pulled out a pen from her pocket and snatched one of the outdated flyers on the counter, flipping it to the back.

_Naruto, _she started to write.

What to say? Was there much to ask? He probably wouldn't be able to give her any information aside from his General's name anyway. And she didn't have anything interesting to say on her side anyway, besides the fact that perhaps she missed him and another reminder to not do anything stupid.

The door of the ramen shop opened and Sakura tucked aside her incomplete reply to Naruto, looking up and ready to take this customer's order.

Oh.

She saw in his slightly surprised gaze that he hadn't been expecting to see her either.

"Hi," she smiled, and he nodded.

"Didn't know you worked here," he said, pulling out a wallet while checking out the prices on the menu above her head.

"Only weekday evenings."

He gave a silent laugh. "That might as well be full-time."

She typed in his order and gave him the change before attempting to recall his name from the morning.

"Sai, right?"

"Sakura?"

And she confirmed.

"You'll be seeing me a lot, I guess, then," Sai said. "I can't cook for shit."

She laughed quietly, covering her mouth and avoiding the awkwardness.

Ayame stepped out of the kitchen in curiosity of Sakura's giggles. Ayame's eyebrow rose when seeing Sai talking to Sakura from across the counter, although clearly his order had already been transacted.

"Stop flirting and get back to work, _Sakura_-chan," Ayame teased her soon after Sai had exited the ramen shop. "Your boyfriend wouldn't like you off task, now would he?"

Sakura's face soured. "Ayame, _he_ and I are _not _like you and Kakashi-sensei."

"Hey! SHHH!" Ayame hissed at her. "It's not even official yet!"

Though Sakura knew Ayame was just joking, she still couldn't let her tense frown go from Ayame's teasing.

Boyfriend?

Oh no, Sasuke was _far _from that.

* * *

**Ah…just realized that this happens to be my 69th story…well then. Review please!**

**thir13enth (who also just realized that she just passed her seventh year anniversary on Fanfiction! Geez, how time flies by!)**


	2. called up to the front

**Anyways, thank you all readers for the support! I am pleased to know that some of you guys are going to be keeping tabs on the story (though a more, uh…, vocal—aka review!—response would be appreciated too!)! I do like to get to associate personalities with pennames.**

**Oh, really quick AU explanation note: I think the story will pretty much tell you what translates to what from Naru-verse to this alternate universe. The only thing that might not be clear is that ANBU is essentially going to be the "FBI/CIA/secret governmental organization" group that is under, well, clearly the government. Also, I'm pretty sure it's well implied, but the Akatsuki is a "Mafia/crime organization" that operates with any Godfather up on top. If there are any other clarifications that you guys need, feel free to let me know and I'll post up an explanation.**

**But without further ado:**

* * *

**Chapter Two:**

**called up to the front**

* * *

When Sakura woke up, she found that she had fallen asleep to texting again, but this time to TenTen. She really had to stop falling asleep in the middle of these conversations. Sakura checked her phone, and opened TenTen's last message:

_it's like u and sasuke_

Ugh. Not Sasuke again. She had just been nagged by Ayame about him the night before.

**flashback**

"_Hey, Sakura," he called._

_Her heart leapt at her name in his voice and she turned around to join him at the computer screen, looking over his shoulder rather astutely and sniffing the clone off his shirt._

"_What's up," she replied, and looked up to where he was pointing to the title on website headlines. "Akatsuki Suspected for Missing Body Murders?"_

"_Yep," Sasuke nodded._

"_Well, I mean, who else but the Mafia do we blame now these days?"_

"_Point taken," he agreed._

"_Why are you so interested in them?"_

"_It just pisses me off how much crap they're doing."_

_Sakura paused a moment. "Naturally, of course." She smiled at him, "Isn't that why you were planning to join the ANBU or something? So that you can kick them down?"_

_Sasuke grinned up at her, his face turning in her direction and ever ever _ever _so close to her own face._

"_That and the fact that just saying I'm part of the ANBU makes me seem kickass," his breath tickled her bangs. "But the latter more."_

_She stuck out her tongue at him, turning her face to lock eyes with him, the onyx orbs reflecting her face back to her._

"_Too bad you won't actually be able to tell anyone that you're in the ANBU if you're actually working for them."_

_He shrugged, clicking on another link towards the bottom of the page. "C'est la vie."_

_She gave him a tight smile in agreement._

_He was gone the next day._

**divider**

She couldn't admit it to herself, but she knew that she was probably still hopelessly in love with Sasuke.

She stared down at her phone, slowly pressing the down button until she reached one of her contacts: Uchicha Sasuke.

Sakura hesitated for a few moments before pressing down hard on the call button. She pressed her ear to the phone and listened intently, though she was pretty sure she would just be hearing the dial tone into forever...just like all the other times she had called him before.

She hung up after about five rings…or was it fifteen?

She disconnected and stared down at her phone for a while, long after the phone screen went dull black in idleness.

_Ugh, whatever_, she told herself to snap out of it and put Sasuke away. Her mind compartmentalized his memories, but she knew the lids were still half open. It was good enough for now, but now she had to run this off, stepping out of her home into the crisp cool morning air.

She had only gotten a few meters down the street when she noticed Sai stepping out of his own house.

Stopping to wave, she called out: "You have work early?"

He looked up to see her dressed in running shorts and a t-shirt. He seemed to pause for a second before answering, "You can think of it like that."

Sakura wasn't sure what to make of the cryptic answer...it couldn't have just been a simple yes or a no?

**divider**

It was Ino's birthday.

Sakura took a note to go visit the pig before going to Ichiraku.

She waltzed into the Yamanaka florist shop with a small birthday cake that she had just bought from the store nearby in her hands. Chocolate with chocolate icing. Ino's favorite.

"Happy birthday, pig," Sakura declared when placing the cake onto Ino's counter, which was already busy with a few other gift baskets. Temari happened to be there when Sakura came in as well, and she laughed at Ino's rather insulting nickname.

"Billboard brow," Ino muttered, eyeing the delicately bundled sweet in Sakura's hands, "who only just _bought_ me a cake!"

"It's the thought that counts," Sakura retorted. "You know I don't have much time, and that you're not very special to me anyway."

Ino huffed, and Temari decided to catch up with Sakura, having not seen her in a while. "So, how is everything?" Temari asked Sakura, leaning on the counter.

"Everything's going alright," Sakura answered. "I have some juicy gossip though."

And the two girls dropped their ears.

"Remember when you asked me to ask TenTen about Neji?"

"Yep," Ino nodded, even more curious now.

"Wait, they're together?" Temari whispered.

"Not according to TenTen," Sakura explained. "Well okay. I asked her what was up between her and Neji. I had told her that I'd seen her out with him a lot more and stuff and that I'd wanted to know more. She texted me back this morning saying that her relationship with him was, and I quote, 'like you and Sasuke'."

"Hm," Temari said.

"Ooooh," Ino added.

"Yeah," Sakura replied, not knowing what else to say.

"That could either mean that she and him are actually together, but then that would imply that TenTen is assuming you and Sasuke are together because of the way we joke around with you and your supposed boyfriend," Ino reasoned, and before Sakura could shut her up, Ino continued, "_Or_ it could just mean that TenTen and Neji are one-sided unrequited lovers." And here, Ino made an exaggerated frowny face.

Either way, Sakura was being offended. She rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Naruto told me to tell everyone that he's alright," Sakura changed the subject.

"Well aren't you the lucky one?" Ino accused.

"I honestly…don't know what you're talking about," Sakura confessed, after a while of trying to figure out what Ino could have possibly been referring to.

"I mean, Naruto only gets like one call allotted to him every now and then, and he probably gets no time at all to write a letter. And each and every time, guess who the one he contacts is?" Ino explained. "You!" And Ino poked Sakura right in the stomach, which Sakura flicked away in annoyance.

Sakura said nothing, weakly smiling.

"Well um, I got to get to my next shift," the pinkette later said, stepping away. "Ichiraku awaits me!"

"You owe me!" Ino yelled at her as Sakura walked out of the shop.

"Greedy pig!" Sakura shot back before the glass door closed on her.

**divider**

"Can I take the next order? Oh…Sai..."

That was twice Sakura would see him today.

"Hi," he said, rather disenchantedly.

Was he always dressed in black, or was this just her first time noticing?

She took the order and then suddenly offered, "You know what? How about I make you dinner on Friday?" She wasn't exactly sure at the moment why she volunteered to cook for the stranger that Sai was, but the offer was already out and it would be rude to take it back.

Sai looked up at her straight into her eyes for what seemed to Sakura to be a long second.

"Um…sure," he said and smiled at her. "Thank you."

Sakura stood there, returning the smile awkwardly until Ayame passed her his bowl of soup.

"I'll just send it right over to your house," Sakura said, holding out Sai's ramen, which he took in one swift motion.

"You don't have to do that. Or cook either, actually," he added.

"Oh no no no!" Sakura laughed. "I just feel like perhaps we should get to know each other better anyways!" Then after she said it, she realized what a stupid excuse that was. Almost as stupid as inviting him over for dinner in the first place. God, what was she thinking? Why was she doing all these impromptu things without confirming with her brain?

"Okay then, see you," said he, walking off shortly after.

She looked back down at the counter, placing her hands at the edge and noticing that her fingers were jittering a bit. Was she nervewracked?

Ayame's voice creeped up behind her. "Shame shame shame…what would Sasuke think if he saw you flirting like this!" she cooed. "And you're being so upfront about all this!"

"Leave me alone," Sakura snarled softly. "I told you he's not my boyfriend. And I'm not flirting with Sai."

"Well in your head, Sasuke is practically your boyfriend. I mean, you're so devoted to him—you're even devoted to his memories," Ayame said.

Sakura's defensiveness turned around. She had to admit that that _was _true.

She had been trying to rid herself of her attachment to Sasuke ever since he left.

**inthepast,oneday**

"_Hey, Naruto," Sakura greeted, when Naruto picked up the phone._

"_What? Why are you calling so early? It's like nine in the morning..and on a _Sunday_!"_

"_Well I'm up. Do you have idea where Sasuke is?"_

"_And why has it always been about Sasuke for the past week?"_

_Sakura stuttered before her words came out. "I-I-I'm just really worried about him."_

_Naruto was worried about Sasuke too, but not to the extent that Sakura was. Sakura knew that Naruto already figured out that she was in love with Sasuke, so Naruto asking about her concern was more or less redundant on his part._

"_I mean," she continued. "We haven't seen him at all in the past four or five days. His boss doesn't know where he is, and I've been texting him and he hasn't been answering, and remember-? We checked his house and it was empty, and his car was gone? And you know, usually, he'd at least text a reply or something within one or two days, he's not the type of person that would leave inbox unread and—"_

"_Yeah, I know."_

_Sakura shut her mouth. Naruto _did _know all this. Only because Sakura had been repeating the same thing over and over again whenever she talked about Sasuke for the past few days, which was often, and only because Sakura had Naruto go with her to try to track down Sasuke._

_God, she was probably annoying the hell out of Naruto with this constant chatter and worry. Why did she worry so much? Was she worrying a bit too much?_

_Naruto was probably hurt too—she knew that Naruto was in love with her, or at least from what Sasuke told her, Naruto 'thought a lot about her.' She was probably hurting him by being so concerned about Sasuke right in front of Naruto._

"_I'm…sorry, Naruto. I'll just leave you to rest today. Sorry about that," she said, after realizing all this._

_Naruto's reply came out after a brief pause. "No, I'm worried too."_

_They remained silent on the phone for a good minute or two._

"…_I don't know what to do," Sakura said. "I feel like we should be doing something for him. I mean, we don't even know what happened to him—he could have been driving and got into an accident where no one is right now about to find him, or he could have been robbed or even kidnapped, or held hostage or something like that!"_

"_Sasuke's smart. He's not going to get himself caught up into deep shit or anything," Naruto said finally. "I'm not going to worry too much. You shouldn't either."_

"_I don't know, Naruto," Sakura said. "I just…I never feel like I can help you guys, and that I'm not capable of helping you guys out."_

_Naruto kept his ear on the phone and listened, which Sakura was grateful for._

_In the end, it ended up being only those two idiots—the ones that she could tell her deepest thoughts to._

"_And since I can't really help you guys out…I feel like the least I can do is worry," she confessed._

**backtothepresent**

Ayame put her hand on Sakura's shoulder and cracked a small smile.

"He _does_ look like him though…you know?" And Ayame tried to turn her eyes to see Sakura's facial expression. Ayame's grip turned into one of concern, and Sakura read off Ayame's silence that she was worried that Sakura was still occupied with Sasuke on her mind.

Sakura met Ayame's eyes to reassure her that she was fine and shrugged off Ayame's hand.

"Yeah, he does," she agreed, almost reluctantly.

"I just hope that…you know, you're not just flirting with him because he looks like Sasuke and…you know, you're trying to substitute Sasuke with him," Ayame said, and then she made a joke out of it. "I mean, I didn't think you were _that _shallow."

"Pssht, no I'm not, personality is important to me, and Sai has an interesting personality."

Ayame cocked an eyebrow up. "Are you admitting that you're flirting with him?"

"Stop putting words in my mouth. I said that he had an interesting personality. I don't know what you're extracting from that."

"Well, it's just that you were talking about how personality is important to you when it comes to guys—"

"Shut up," Sakura snarled teasingly back at the ramen girl. "Go boil some noodles."

**divider**

And there he was again!

Sakura almost tripped over herself seeing Sai outside leaning on his car, ear tilted toward a cell phone that he held privately in his right hand.

He was on a phone so early in the morning?

He caught her curious stare and waved at her.

She mouthed a reminder about dinner that night, and he placed a thumbs up in the air.

She paced away, not letting herself get distracted again, something she hadn't been able to do since he moved in, she realized. A thought lingered in her mind for a second, but she let it go in sacrifice of the focus she had to put into running steadily.

**waybackwhen**

"_Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha!" Iruka-sensei called out, and respective groans and hurrays arose from Naruto and Sakura respectively._

_Sasuke sat unfazed by the random selection of his partners for the class groups._

_Sakura was ecstatic to be working with Sasuke for the year's project. It promised an entire year of making excuses to see him to "work on the final project." He was the smartest, coolest person, ever! (She was totally going to get married to him when she got older!)_

_Well then there was Naruto too, the annoying brat, but Sasuke totally overrode that disappointment!_

_The three of them were in their primary years. None of them ever guessed that the three of them would become tight friends, practically family after that year's school project. It was a rather elementary school project, just to present some research on some simple little scientific phenomena (if Sakura recalled correctly, they eventually decided to prove the effect of adding certain solutes to the freezing points of water or something like that) but it created something Sakura thought, when she reflected back in their later years in high school, was permanent._

_The three of them remained close even into their undergraduate years of college, and Sakura would have never guessed that back then, eating lunch and laughing at ridiculous jokes with them, that she would ever be so harshly ripped from their presence all at once._

_Sakura had thought their friendship would have been immortal, even after they passed away._

Dreams don't last forever,_ she had later realized. She had to wake up later at some point._

**divider**

"Sakura?"

She jolted up straight, and looked up at Tsunade-sensei in the eye, acting as though she had been paying attention the entire time. But all she saw was Tsunade-sensei's furrowed eyebrows.

"Sakura, if you don't pay attention, how do I expect you to be a good doctor?"

Sakura bit her lip and looked down in shame.

"The greatest attribute a doctor can have is to be able to listen," Tsunade-sensei continued. "You _listen _to what people have to tell you, so that you know how they feel and you can _treat _them. Observing is good, but it's not enough to put you into the other person's shoes. The real weapon of any medical doctor is the ability to _understand_. Remember that, Sakura, and take yourself out of your personal world for a moment to hear what your patient has to say."

She kept her head down.

Sometimes all she felt she did _was _listen.

**divider**

The day was tiring, and Sakura was glad that after cooking, all that was left to do was just to hand it over to Sai and perhaps hang around to have a small conversation.

She stood outside a full minute before she asked herself why she was hesitating to even knock, and thus did so shortly after.

He opened the door subsequently and invited her in.

She slowly stepped into the house, which still smelled like wallpaper and whatever other smells a new house smelled like. Noticing a table out in front of the kitchen counter, she made her way toward it, her ceramic container holding the freshly cooked linguini.

Sai stepped ahead of her to clear the table, shutting his laptop and scooping up the papers to move them away, even after Sakura said, "Oh, I don't mind if those are there."

"I'd rather not have them there," he had replied before going into another room to put the laptop and papers completely out of sight.

And now suddenly, sitting there waiting by the table, Sakura suddenly wondered what Sai did for an occupation. He woke up early and seemed to not be rotting around on the couch watching the television all day, so what could he possibly be doing?

When he returned and reached to get some plates and utensils, she asked him this.

"I paint," he answered.

And suddenly, all the artwork that was up on the walls around the house stood out.

"You painted all this?"

"The majority. Some are from other artists."

"You're very good," she complimented.

Setting the plate and forks down on the table, he gave her a modest smile and thanked her. He then sat down and uncovered the serving platter of the pasta, catching a whiff of the aroma and giving her an approving smile.

"Seems you're not bad either," he said, and she in the same manner, thanked his compliment.

They served each other and sat quietly for a while, eating, before Sakura found the silence awkward.

"So…I guess you're keeping yourself busy with other stuff, right?" she asked, referring to how she had seen his computer and a lot of papers out when she first came into his house.

He stopped eating for a moment, and pondered, before answering, "You can think of it like that."

She internally groaned at the same cryptic answer as she had heard earlier before.

"And you? Just working at Ichiraku?"

"Ah. No," she said. "I'm a resident doctor too, but that doesn't give too exciting of a salary."

He leaned back into the chair, which was straight across from hers. She noticed that the chair didn't match the one she was sitting in, and was probably dragged in from another room, which meant that he lived singly, and as one person, only needed one chair at the table.

But why was she observing this intensely?

"I thought you looked more intelligent than the average Ichiraku employee," he said, almost wryly.

Sakura caught herself before she flushed and muttered a 'thank you' before stuffing her mouth with another forkful of noodle.

Then suddenly, another question caught her off guard.

"You seem down," he stated, but she suspected it was supposed to be a question.

"Uh…bad day at work," she answered, though that was probably just half of it.

She had to let go. Even a complete stranger could notice that she was not her full self. She just had to forget about—

"Here, how about as a thank you, I give you a painting to take home," he offered.

She almost choked. Swallowing hard, she said, "What…I mean, why would you do that? No, you don't have to! It was just dinner!"

He shrugged, and slowly rose to put away the dishes. She stood abruptly.

"I...I'll take care of these," she declared. "It's the least I can do for your hospitality."

He later presented her with a rolled up painting, practically as tall as she was, save a few inches. Sakura hesitated before taking the painting, looking up at Sai to ensure that this was hers to keep. After his affirmation, she gently took it under her arm and thanked him about three times before stepping out the door and saying good night and another thank you.

"No, thank _you_ for dinner," he said, before closing the door.

She later unfurled the painting to its full glory, a cherry tree in full blossom swaying against the gentle breeze of an upcoming storm, strong and resilient.

Breathtaking.

**divider**

Sakura noted that for the past week she had been running, she always saw Sai outside, leaning on his car, right hand holding a phone to his head.

Always on the phone. Always in the morning whenever she made her daily exercise run by.

She was curious enough to ask why, and stepped over to him one morning a few days later.

He instantly dropped his call when she stepped to his side.

"Hey," she chirped, though she was already feeling the awkwardness settle.

"Morning," he replied.

"Just wondering. I meant, you're always up so early? And I've noticed you're always on the phone at this time," she stated, but it ended up more like a question. Oh god, she hadn't talked to him since the dinner at his house, she should have probably talked about that first.

"I'm an early riser," Sai said, not answering the second question.

She tried again. "Are you always up this early on time for a call?"

"Are you always running on time?" he asked back, with a smile.

Intimidated and figuring that she shouldn't prod, she replied, "Yes…I'm sorry. I was just a bit curious. Sorry if—"

"Oh no, it's completely fine."

She changed the subject. "I thought the painting was beautiful. Thank you so much for it. I really can't put into words how much that meant to me."

"Oh no," he said. "It wasn't any problem to me at all. I'm glad you're pleased."

She struggled to find something else to say. "Is it titled? The painting?"

"Titled?" he asked, looking as though that was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. "No," he said but his tone rose a bit to imply a question, as if he was asking if it should be titled.

"Oh," taken aback, she said. "I was just asking."

Before the awkward moment settled, Sakura made a quick goodbye and ran off, while wondering why she was thinking much about Sai at all.

**divider**

She had to take this call.

Sakura apologized quickly to her colleagues and stepped out into the hallway, hurriedly placing her ear to the phone before she lost the call.

"Hello?" she asked urgently.

"Sakura!"

"Naruto," said she, cheerful to hear his voice, but not quite so enthusiastic about his whereabouts or his safety.

"How are you? How has everything been?" he chirped.

"Very good, but I really should be asking that to you first."

"Ah well, all is the same. Military bullshit, as usual."

She nodded, to no one in particular since Naruto wasn't exactly right there in front of her either. "Hm…Ino's birthday passed a few days ago."

"Did you tell her I said 'hi'?"

"I told everyone I saw that you said 'hi', Naruto."

"Great, I don't want to be thrown completely out of the loop. Sometimes I go out of the country for a vacation and come back a week later and I've already missed like ten parties and a wedding. Anything else happening?"

"We're suspecting TenTen and Neji are getting it on," Sakura said, but she doubted Naruto would be interested in something like that.

"Oh, I think we've _been _suspecting that for quite awhile now. How's work? I think I'm calling you in the middle of it right? But it's around one right now, I tried to call you when you were at lunch."

"Actually, I was in the middle of rounds—"

"Sorry, sorry, sorry! I'll talk to you later or—"

"No, no, it's okay. I'm not the leading attendant anyway," Sakura blurted. "It's nice to hear your voice now and then."

"That's funny. You only seem to be able to listen to me only when I'm more than ten miles away from you," Naruto replied wryly. "But nah, I'll hang up, I feel bad for dragging you out…and you eat a late lunch…"

"Yeah…I mean it's okay...sometimes I just never really get around to lunch..."

"Geez, Sakura, if you can't be responsible to do something as simple as eating..."

"Shut up," Sakura laughed into the phone. They both held silence for a while and then Sakura recalled something. "Oh, remember that house that was on sale in my neighborhood? You used to always pass it when coming over or something…"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"I have a new neighbor now, apparently. Someone's moved in and bought the house, I think."

"Cool."

"Yep," Sakura agreed, but then realized that she shouldn't quite talk more about Sai, because she'd eventually get to have to tell Naruto about what Sai looked like—and she wanted to keep Sasuke out of the conversation as much as she possibly could. "I guess you guys are taking a break then? You know, to be able to call me at such a time."

"Well actually, I was going to get to that."

Sakura's breath stopped.

Wait, no, Naruto didn't imply anything bad was happening.

Why was she getting all tensed up?

"W-well?" she asked, stuttering.

"I just wanted to let you know that my squad's going to be heading out for our first mission! Our first _real _life battle mission! Going out to the fronts, you know?"

He seemed so excited.

"That's great, Naruto," Sakura forced herself to say. "Well…be careful. Don't get too reckless out there."

"Of course, Sakura."

"Where are you going—" but she stopped herself. Naruto probably couldn't say; it was a military operative, she wouldn't get to really know anything until it was all over…or until he was dead.

She shook morbid thoughts out of her head. _Just trust Naruto_, she told herself. _He's going to be alright._

"What?" he asked, and the connection faltered a bit.

"Nothing, nothing," she said. "I was just wishing you luck!"

"Don't worry about me, Sakura; that's an order! I'm going to come back, safe and sound. Then we'll have a huge ramen party and celebrate! Believe it!"

Despite his command, a ball of concern wound up in her throat.

"Yeah, I will," she croaked. "Good luck, Naruto! Be careful!"

"Aiiieee, you said that already," he scoffed, and she found herself smiling a bit. "I'll see you later, Sakura!"

"Bye," she said before the line dropped.

But it took her a moment to walk back into the room ready again for work.

It ate at her gut, a dark spine-chilling feeling of apprehension, a bad feeling for what was coming up, a premonition that she didn't want to see happen.

She told her mind to let it pass, because she always worried so much.

But this, even her whole body couldn't let go, and Sakura had the deepest feeling that nothing was going to be the same from that moment on again.

* * *

**Please do review! I'd very much like to know what you guys think!**


	3. scratching at the surface

**Writers are insane; they are slaves to words.**

**Again, thank you all for being great readers! I'm going to tell you right now that this story is actually going to twist around chapter 5 or so, so hang in there, I'm just giving you some background info on the characters, and mostly digging through Sakura's brain so you know where she stands with everything.**

**Yes, Sai is perhaps a bit OOC. But he's trained. He can deceive. He can act as anyone he damn wants. And this is fanfiction. :P Nah, well, sorry about the OOC-ness, I needed it for the story to flesh out.**

* * *

**Chapter Three:**

**scratching at the surface**

* * *

She didn't awaken to any texts or alarms that morning.

"Hey," a gentle voice tapped her ear. "Sakura."

The rumble of the masculine voice was all too familiar. She was stirred awake by the excitement of hearing him again, eyes shooting open to take him in because she could _feel _how close he was, taking a deep breath to relish the scents that he carried. She rose from her bed, placed her feet on the floor, turned towards him.

Her lips parted. "Sasuke."

After not seeing or hearing from him in so long, Sakura thought she would have pounced on him the moment the day came when he returned. She expected herself to be crying her eyes out in both happiness and of relief; she even thought to make sure to constrain herself, otherwise she might have found herself kissing him or risk having much more of the raw emotions she felt about him spill out of her. And she knew that he hated that—seeing her, seeing anyone, all ripped out in sentiments like that.

But she saw him now, after all that time, and now she just calmly sat on the side of her bed, looking up at him with a small smile across her face, heart thumping into her throat but strangely controlled, calm, relaxed, mature.

He smiled back, lightly; perhaps he was surprised that she wasn't reacting as intensely as he was expecting her to? Perhaps he was surprised that she perhaps changed?

"Hey," he said again, and now sat down at her side on her bed.

God he was so close.

"How'd you get in here anyway? This _is _my house," Sakura said.

Sasuke shrugged. "You know that both Naruto and I know where you keep the spare keys."

She nodded, reminded. "So," she started. "Where were you?"

"Oh," he laughed softly. "I was wondering when you'd start attacking me with those questions. I was on a retreat with some friends elsewhere. It was impromptu."

"A really long retreat," she grumbled.

"Yeah..."

"And here I lay worrying about you every night before I went to sleep."

"I knew you would," he said. "Sorry."

She brushed the apology off. "Ugh, by now, I'm already used to be worried about either of you two."

"You seem really calm actually. I mean normally, I'd be expecting—"

"It's just because I woke up and I'm probably not thinking straight yet," she replied, and then added, "But I still don't understand why you couldn't have just sent Naruto or me at least one text or a call or something…"

Sasuke shrugged. "I know I should have, I just kept…not doing it." He turned his handsome face towards her. "I'm sorry," he repeated, and then when her eyes met his onyx ones, he gave her a smile and then leaned in to hug her.

His embrace awakened something in her. She felt herself starting to lose her composure, and she felt tears pooling in the back of her eyes, a knot tangle itself in her throat.

She really did miss him. Sakura lifted her arms and returned the embrace, and when he pulled back, she kept him close to her, putting her head on his left shoulder and looking off at the side.

She couldn't let him go.

But leave he did within the next second, slipping out of her grasp, and all that she had left of him was the bittersweet memories that hung over what she realized was just a dream when she later actually woke up.

**divider**

She needed to rid herself of these thoughts, and after waking up to a hollow sensation in her heart, she knew she had to run.

It was her meditation essentially, to wind out all her feelings before they compressed within her. She was trying to run away from Sasuke, run away from her worry and feelings of abandonment, but she found that her emotions just kept crawling back, catching up, stretching forward towards her and pulling her back down.

Run, run, run, and the familiar bounce of her heels on the ground and the stretch of her ankles soothed her. The wind blew her hair back; the air breezed past her face and pushed the staleness off her. She felt refreshed, she saw the distance ahead of her, a bleak outline of what to expect.

Stable, grounded, efficient, cleansing.

She was so focused on forgetting that she almost completely missed Sai, who was—again?—leaning on his car in the driveway—so early in the morning?—on the phone.

_Just ignore him_, she thought to herself. _Why are you even interested in what he does anyway? He's just a neighbor, perhaps friendlier than the other ones, but that's no reason to get off track._

And then the thought suddenly occurred to her like cold water.

_Oh god, don't tell me that I'm afraid of falling in love with him._

"…sweetheart…"

Her head snapped, turning to face him as she ran by, overhearing a clip of his conversation.

Sweetheart?

He was talking to his girlfriend?

And why was she concerned about that?

Did he even seem like the type to call someone 'sweetheart' anyway?

No. She had to stop thinking about him. Why did she even care if he had a girlfriend—

"Hey, Sakura!"

She stopped abruptly, watching him run up to her after tucking his phone back into his pocket. He gave her a small smile as he stopped in front of her, asking, "Are you busy tonight?"

Her heart skipped a beat, but definitely not for romantic reasons. "Uh…not really, I mean, it's a Friday night."

"Oh, okay, I was wondering if you'd join me for dinner later today. I have to pay you back for last week's meal," he explained.

"Sure, I, uh…sure!" she answered.

"See you then," he said and walked off, just as casually as he had approached her.

She stood in place for a moment before starting up her run again, her mind still busy but this time thinking about what had just happened as opposed to what had happened in her dream. She was more confused than anything else really. She didn't understand why he was even trying to be nice to her when he had a girlfriend.

And if he had a girlfriend, why did the two to have to be calling each other so early in the goddamn morning?

And if she was away, was he thinking of going on an affair or something?

Why was she even thinking about this? He could be just doing all this as a friendly gesture, the painting he gave her, the dinner that he just invited her to, everything.

Oh, she had to stop thinking. This was just ridiculous. She started to run to get things off her mind and now she was running with more.

But should Sai really be concerning her that much?

Maybe the fact that he _did _look like Sasuke was bothering her. And that he was being friendly to her was making her feel uncomfortable because it would be like his company was replacing Sasuke's.

And that would probably explain why…maybe, she was worried about…getting to know Sai more.

Coming to like him more.

**divider**

She sat on the side on her bed, looking down at her phone and hesitating before pressing the call button.

Three rings, four, five…

"The person that you have called is not available at the moment. Please leave a message after the beep."

Sakura let one second go by before she began talking. "Uh…hey Sasuke. I was just calling. Just wanted to know if you were alright. Haven't heard from you in a while. So…talk to you later, bye."

It was just like every other message that she had ever left on his phone.

**divider**

"Sakura?" Tsunade recalled Sakura back to reality.

"Oh! I'm sorry, Tsunade-sensei!" Sakura apologized sharply, realizing that she had lost her concentration to thoughts elsewhere.

Tsunade looked back at Sakura sympathetically. "Sakura, you're a brilliant student, but you've been very off recently."

Sakura looked down. "Yeah, I'm sorry."

"Do you think you'll need a break for about a week or so? I want you to fully recover so that you are fully focused on the work in front of you. It's not worth it for you to be here all the time and only have focused on what's at hand."

Sakura looked back up at Tsunade's concerned eyes. "I guess I'll take the break then," she said after a moment of consideration.

Tsunade's eyes softened. "Take next week off. Come back fresh as a mountain spring, okay?" And then after a moment, the senior added, "In fact, you look terrible, why don't you go home early today?"

Sakura nodded her head in gratitude and uttered a quick thank you before stepping out of the hospital and plopping down in the driver's seat of her car, a hard sigh escaping her mouth.

She was slightly disgusted by herself.

Naruto was throwing himself out in front of guns on the battlefield.

And she?

She could barely get through a day of work.

**divider**

"What? Why? What happened?" Ayame's voice chattered out from her phone speaker.

"Nothing, I'm just going to take a break for a week or something."

"Did something happen?" she heard Ayame's frown through her voice. "You can tell me; I don't mind listening."

"No, I'm just taking a break for the sake of taking a break. Besides, vacation days expire after a year so I'm going to use all the days I've rolled over so far."

"Ay…and you're going to leave little old me here alone to break my back working."

Sakura thought for a moment before replying. "Yes."

"Sadistic bitch."

"It's time for you to do your own work."

"You know, I could technically fire you right now at this second."

"And lose me completely, even after my week of break?"

Ayame groaned in defeat. "Alright, alright, but if there's something going on, you have to let me know, okay? You can't just keep all that crap building up inside of you."

"Yeah yeah," Sakura said, later ending the conversation before stepping out of the door to head over to Sai's house for the dinner.

**divider**

He was actually a good cook and Sakura realized this after a bite of the rice, and she told him just that.

He shrugged. "I'm too lazy to actually cook."

"And busy?" Sakura asked.

He shrugged again.

"How much painting do you do anyway?"

"Not much," Sai replied, sitting back into his chair and folding his arms over his chest. Sakura noticed he was wearing practically the same attire that she always saw him in: a slightly tight fitting plain black t-shirt and well-worn slim black jeans.

"So, do you actually get good money for being an artist?"

"Sometimes. It depends on the day."

For some reason, it seemed as though he always replied extremely vaguely, and it felt like she ended up with more questions after every answer.

"You don't have a stable job?" she asked anyhow.

He considered for a moment. "Not quite, I travel a lot anyway."

She nodded. "So, what was with all those papers on the table the last time I came in?"

Sai appeared to freeze up.

Perhaps he hadn't expected her to remember something like that from that long ago? Perhaps that was something a bit too personal that maybe Sakura shouldn't have mentioned? Perhaps he was starting to get a bit freaked out by how she was still carrying on this inquisitive conversation?

"Okay," he stuttered out finally. "I'll admit it. I'm working on a novel."

"Oh." Well that was cute, she guessed. He was just an artistic type of person—completely understandable.

"I just don't want anyone to see my writing until I eventually decide to publish."

In an effort to outstretch a friendly hand, Sakura said, "Oh, well you can trust me! I won't tell anyone, I'd just like to know about your work!"

He didn't hesitate to answer this time. "I'm really sorry. I'd rather not. It's not a personal thing against you; the writing is essentially for myself right now."

Sakura let the awkward moment pass by taking a look around his house once more.

Clean and neat.

Actually, it was the cleanest of all the guys' houses—and girls'—she had ever visited. Not even the meticulous and organized Sasuke was this pristine.

Hm, his girlfriend probably did all the cleaning.

The question came out before she could stop it.

"Sai, do you have a girlfriend?"

He looked quizzically at her and answered a slow, "No…" And to avoid any awkward silence that could follow, he returned, "So how is _your_ boyfriend doing?"

"I, uh, don't have a boyfriend," she replied.

"Ah," Sai said. "You guys broke up recently? Sorry for asking."

"No…" Sakura wrinkled her nose. "No…I just never had one."

He nodded.

Before awkward ensued, she added, "You must have heard that at Ichiraku that day or something. Ayame was just joking around since…well…nevermind."

_That _would be even more unusual to be talking about.

Sai nodded again, abruptly asking, "Can I offer you something to drink?"

"No, I'm fine," Sakura ensured. "Well actually…" and she stopped him while he was midway off his seat to fetch a glass of something. "I wanted to ask if…I could watch you paint, like…I don't know, some day."

He had taken a sip of water a bit before she had asked this, and now she watched him gulp down really hard.

"You what?"

"It'd be relaxing for me, you know, to watch you paint."

Sai broke a soft smile across his lips. "Well, I don't exactly paint all day but I can let you borrow some paints and paper to let you make your own art. Besides, don't you usually have regular scheduled work? I paint on an irregular basis; I can't really guarantee that you'll be watching me do anything at any given time."

"Oh no, I'm asking now because I'm going to be on break."

He raised an eyebrow. "Bad day at work again?"

"Not quite. My boss just advised I take a break before going at it again."

Sai let a moment pass before getting up. "Well, instead of watching me, let me go get a set of brushes and paints for you." Sakura got up to follow after him, but he insisted that she stay there and to keep her seat.

After presenting her with a carefully packaged set of brushes and a box of paints along with a few rolls of paper, she took all of them carefully up in her arms and thoroughly thanked him, bidding him an awkward goodnight at his door.

"Um…it's kinda late," he commented, leaning on his doorframe looking out at her, who had just stepped off his porch. "Would you like me to take you back?"

Sakura flushed. "Oh no, that wouldn't be necessary."

"I insist," Sai said, closing his front door as he stepped out as well. "I feel bad and you have quite the load to carry back now anyway." He clicked open his car and held the passenger door open for her.

"Um, it's just a few houses down, but thank you," she mumbled as she looked around his car, which was interesting because she had never seen such a generic looking car that quite looked like Sai's. She spotted no overt company logo and there were a few extra dials on the dashboard that she didn't recognize.

She whistled in her head. Damn, this must be one of those expensive cars.

When she caught a glance to the back of his car, she spotted a change of clothes folded onto the backseat.

"Thank you," she said, opening her door to leave, facing him for another awkward goodbye.

"See you," he said, pulling the clutch back to drive.

"For everything," she added, gesturing to both the car and the paints and implying the dinner as well.

"Anytime." And he drove off.

**divider**

Saturday afternoon, the next day, Sakura received a text from TenTen:

_But yeah we are going out_

So there! NejiTen was a reality!

Wait until the gossip queen heard this bit.

_Oh, speak of the devil, _Sakura thought when her phone received an incoming call.

"Hi."

"Where the hell were you last night, billboard brow?"

"Um…"

"You weren't at work and I asked Ayame at the counter and she said that you had taken a vacation. And I called your number several times and you didn't pick up! I thought you went on a cruise without me or something—wait! Where are you right _now_? Don't tell me you're on a cruise ship."

"At home."

"Perfect. I'm driving over to your house and dropping these cookies that Hinata baked for me. She's too good of a baker and I really can't afford to gain weight right now."

Within the next twenty minutes, Sakura held open her door and Ino waltzed in, making her way to Sakura's kitchen counter where she dropped an aluminum-covered tray of said desserts. Ino whipped around to face Sakura, hands on her hips and looking quite serious.

"So," Ino stated. "Where were you last night?"

"I just checked my phone. I didn't get any calls from you last night," Sakura replied. But Ino wouldn't lie about something like that, not even to exaggerate a point she was making. Sakura's phone just probably didn't pick up the call at all. Or maybe Sai's house had poor reception and she had no signal in there.

"_Sakura_, where were you last night?" Ino repeated. "Don't stray away from the question."

"At a friend's house," the pinkette admitted finally.

"Who?" and Sakura saw the evil glitters in the blonde's eyes.

"A friend."

"You can be more specific."

Sakura shook her head. "You don't know him."

She realized the masculine pronoun slipped off her tongue once Ino's eyebrow cocked up. "What's his name?"

Sakura sighed, knowing she wouldn't be able to get out of this one. "Sai."

"Who's he?"

"He's…" Sakura made a gesture as though to forget about it. "He's a new neighbor, moved into one of the houses on sale."

Ino crossed her arms and leaned against the counter, concluding, "So Sasuke has competition."

"You guys really have to stop bringing Sasuke into everyth—"

"Show me him! Is he hot?"

"Don't be ridiculous."

"He's a neighbor, isn't he? I'm sure I can just pop by and meet him or something!"

"Ino…"

By now, Ino was pulling Sakura out of her own house by the wrist. Sakura didn't thinking resistance would help her cause anymore and a few minutes later, Ino's flamboyant red car was parked at the side of Sai's house ("I _will _ring the doorbell that you lead me to, so don't lie and make a fool of yourself," said Ino in the driver seat.), and Ino was dragging Sakura to the front door.

Sakura tried to keep Ino from ringing the doorbell, but the crafty pig rapped hard on the door instead.

They waited for a few minutes but he didn't come to the door.

"See? He's not home," Sakura said, attempting to discourage Ino, and started her way back home.

Ino pulled Sakura back. "I'm not _that _blonde, pinky. His car is in the driveway—"

The front door swung open, revealing a rather nonchalant Sai in his usual attire.

"Hi!" Ino exclaimed upon seeing the man. "I'm Sakura's good friend, Ino Yamanaka! Glad to meet you!" She took his hand and shook it vigorously. "I had actually been looking into buying this house before," Ino lied, "but congratulations! It's a beautiful house and is at an awesome location and everything!"

Sai gave her a soft smile, placing his free hand over her right hand, to stop the handshake before taking both his hands back to himself. "Thank you. It wasn't difficult of a choice."

"Yeah, and I'm sure Sakura could help you out if you ever needed anything," Ino tucked Sakura into the conversation, and Sakura could only nod in affirmation of her friend's words. "Are you new to the area or are you just moving in from somewhere else?"

"This is actually the first time I've lived in East District."

"Oh, well I'm sure you'll enjoy it here," Ino assured.

"Right," he replied.

Sakura counted three awkward seconds before she jumped in. "Well, just dropping by to say hi. Bye!"

"Okay," was his answer, and Sakura wasn't sure what to make of the tone, while inconspicuously shoving Ino back toward her car.

"He looks like Sasuke!" Ino exclaimed once they were in the car. "Oh my god, Sakura, you definitely have some kind of a preference thing going on. Let's see…dark hair…more on the skinny side…white skin…black eyes…"

"Let it go, Ino, we were just having a dinner."

"You don't do that with every new neighbor I see."

Sakura gave a great sigh, and they pulled into Sakura's driveway but Ino didn't get out of her car even after she pulled out her keys from ignition.

After a moment, her friend finally spoke.

"I know you miss Sasuke, Sakura," Ino said, her voice dropping earnestly. "But you have to get over him."

Sakura looked down.

"I'm not saying to forget him or not be concerned about him at all, but this definitely isn't the first time he's just left without saying anything, and he definitely shouldn't be occupying your mind as much as he is right now. You can't have him intrude in your life."

"What are you talking about?"

"He looks like Sasuke, Sakura. It's like you're substituting someone to fill in the Sasuke role so you can like, I don't know, lie to yourself that he's close by or something."

"That's just coincidence," she denied. "And Sai's just an acquaintance."

"Whatever, I'm not going to argue," Ino said, looking out her side of the window before turning her head back to face Sakura. "But you also have to stop running your knees off." Ino unconsciously looked towards Sakura's calves. "I mean, a mile is already enough for every day, but you're pushing it a few." Ino paused for a moment. "And you're not even doing it for health reasons or to train for a marathon, you're just running off steam." Ino's eyes caught Sakura's, concern etched into her friend's blue eyes.

"Don't worry about me, Ino," Sakura sighed, looking away.

"Well…let me know if I can do anything," Ino discarded the seriousness, her tone lighter. "You know…if that boy needs charming up or something."

A smile stretched across Sakura's lips. "Okay then. Thanks Ino."

**divider**

"So I'm really sorry about earlier today," Sakura apologized, ashamed. "Ino is rather the social butterfly."

Sai was at the door again, in the same attire, as nonchalant as before. "It's understandable," nodding his head.

"Here," Sakura said, returning the art supplies he had lent her. "The brushes are from Amekagure? And the paints from Iwagakure? Did you get all that travelling to those places?"

"Yeah," he answered in a word while taking the stuff. "How'd the painting go?"

She laughed nervously. "Not too well; I'm not an artist."

He gave some kind of a side nod, and then suddenly looked at her. "Do you work weekends?"

"No…" Sakura answered, recovering from the abrupt eye contact.

"I have time too; why don't we go check your painting out?" he offered, and then smiled.

**divider**

He smiled again when he saw Sakura's work, which she had taped to the wall, arms folded across his chest and slightly leaning back. Amused, he inquired, "Is this supposed to depict any meaning?" He held two fingers out to mimic the curves of green that were placed sparingly across the canvas.

"Palm trees," Sakura clarified wryly, "on a beach."

His hand returned to his chin in a thoughtful pose. "Well it's good abstract," and his eyes followed her lips to see if she caught the insulting joke.

She covered her smile with a hand. "That's just a bad painting," she felt a blush creep up.

His eyes scanned it again. "No such thing as a good or bad art," he replied.

"Then I'm a bad artist," she said, gesturing over to the left where she had hung Sai's gift painting. Side by side, the paintings shouted contrasts to each other. "Maybe you can help me out and make a few 'minor' edits?"

His eyebrows furrowed like it was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. "Nah," he said, shaking his head. "You don't correct someone's art."

"Well that's not art. You can change it up a bit."

"No," was his definite answer, placing his hands in his pockets and starting to walk towards the door.

"Or help me out a bit in making it look more realistic or something?"

He stood at the doorway, "Nope. That's all on you." Then he left, shutting the door behind him.

**flashbacktime!**

_She dug her toes in and out of the sand, coarse grains sticking under her toenail. She leaned back against her arms and inhaled the salty air, the roar of the collapsing ocean waves as her skin soaked the orange and reds of the sunset._

_She felt warm, under the sun._

_She felt warm, next to him._

_He lay on his back to the right of her, raven hair unkempt under his head and hands, bare chest tanner than it was a few hours before, wet midnight blue swimming trunks sticking to his skin and the sand, onyx eyes grazing the surface of the water._

_She reached over to grab her drink, plastic cup sweating cool water over her fingers, and sipped once or twice before he suddenly stretched his arm out to swipe the beverage out of her grasp._

"_What the hell, Sasuke?" Sakura exclaimed, putting on an exaggerated frown as she watched the level of the drink fall at least two inches in his one large suck at the straw._

_Honestly though, she was amused. She liked it better when he was being playful than his usual dark and almost cynical self._

"_Thanks," he replied, lying back down onto the blanket that Sakura had put out, and placing the cup back into her hand before closing his eyes._

"_Hey!" Naruto's yell made Sakura turn away from watching Sasuke. The blond ran over to both his friends that were under a large umbrella, running and kicking some sand over the two of them accidentally. "How do you go to the beach and _not _get into the water?"_

"_You got sand all over us, usuratonkachi!" Sasuke cursed at the tan blond. Sasuke scooped up some sand on the side of him and hurled it at Naruto._

"_Well, get up you lazy ass!" Naruto kicked up another wave of sand, this time on purpose, at Sasuke, who shielded his eyes with his hands._

"_Dobe!"_

"_Teme!"_

_Sasuke threw another sand splash at Naruto, getting up at the same time to better confront Naruto, grains of sand sprinkling all over the place._

"_Don't get sand in my drink, you idiots!" Sakura yelled, reaching forward to retrieve her refreshment, but Naruto swiftly bent down and scooped it up._

"_I'll secure it for you then!" Naruto offered sarcastically and pulled off the top and straw of the cup and chugged what remained of it._

_The two males returned to their fight, Sasuke shoving Naruto in the excuse of Sakura's reprimand, and then running toward the ocean to take the quarrel to the waters. Naruto followed right after him, throwing the empty smoothie cup down to the ground by Sakura's feet._

"_Guys!" she exclaimed, discouraged. "You guys _know _I _love _strawberry smoothies and the one time I buy one you guys devour it!"_

"_I'll treat you later!" both of them promised her as they ran off._

**divider**

Sakura thought it would be a good idea for her to return Sai the favor of dinner and cook an extra portion for Friday night since he had done so the last Friday before. After preparing some baked tilapia and wild rice in a dish, Sakura headed over a few houses down to her neighbor's home.

Stepping towards the door, she cursed her clumsiness as she tripped over one of the steps on the way up and reached for the door handle, the nearest thing to hold on to.

However, apparently Sai's door hadn't been locked, and the door handle lowered when she applied pressure on it, and instead of being stable enough to keep her from falling, the door handle allowed to continue her fall right into Sai's house.

A blaring alarm bleeped upon her sudden entry.

He had a security system set up?!

She saw him practically tumbling down the stairs to see who or what was at his door at such a time in the night and once seeing her, pulled his right arm back behind him in surprise and quickly ran over to help her up.

"Ah shit, I'm so sorry," Sakura apologized, getting up on her own but placing the dish in Sai's free hand.

"You okay?" he asked almost immediately after, reaching up above his door to turn the alarm off.

"Yeah, yeah, I guess I should have told you that I was going to be making dinner for you today," she said. "It was Friday and I thought I would, um, keep the tradition of Friday dinners up, I guess."

She suddenly realized that he really_ hadn't_ been expecting her.

Being half-naked and all.

He looked down at the aluminum covered plate. "Um…thank you. Smells great." He stepped aside. "Have a seat." And his shirtless self went over into another room to grab an extra chair to join her at his table.

He placed the dish on his table and plopped down into the chair.

She explained, "It's just a dish for you…I, um, already ate, but I made extra for you, so…"

He didn't move. "Well, I'm not comfortable with eating when the person next to me isn't, so I'll save it for later, but thank you. I really appreciate it, and I'm sorry about the security alarm."

"Oh no," she insisted. "I should have told you that I was coming over." She started to fade when she once again noticed his strangely pale but toned chest and biceps. It didn't match; she felt like with that musculature, he should have been at least a bit tanner.

"Nah," he waved down a hand in disregard. "I don't mind. I guess while you're here, we can have a bit of a chat then."

She nodded. "So…how are you? How have you been this week?"

He suddenly got up, raising a finger. "Sorry, let me get a shirt right quick."

"Uh, okay!" she agreed and sat back in her chair while she saw his lanky figure turn and walk over to another—wait, what was that?

Was that black thing hanging out of the back of his jeans the handle of a _gun_?!

What the hell was he doing with a gun?! No, scratch that—why did he_ have_ a gun?!

Did it have to do with her triggering the alarm system?

Was he really that kind of a person? Because if he was, she completely wouldn't have expected someone with his cool and collected demeanor to possess any firearms!

While she recovered from seeing what she thought was a gun, she saw him come back to join her at the table, with his typical black shirt, and calmed herself down. She probably just saw his boxers or something; she doubted it was a gun or something serious like that. Sai didn't even look like he could hurt a fly! Well actually, she didn't know that, but he definitely wasn't one of those cold-blooded sociopaths!

"I'm good," he said. "Been doing well. What about you?"

She half stammered. "I-I, uh, I'm doing great. The vacation was definitely a good idea to take. I feel really well rested."

He nodded. "That's good, that's good. How's your guy?"

What?

She raised an eyebrow. "I don't know who you're talking about. I mean I—"

"Ah, sorry. While we were at your place earlier I noticed a bunch of letters from the Army or something. The ramen girl that you were working with mentioned you had a boyfriend and all," he explained.

Sakura forced a laugh. "Oh no, let me explain. Um, the Army guy is Naruto; he's one of my close friends from way back when and he just updates me on how he is fighting out there." Her talking started to quicken. "The guy that Ayame was talking about was Sasuke, and she was just joking really, because I've been so worried about Sasuke since we think he left the country and I haven't heard of him in a long time."

She was getting more and more nervous talking about this to Sai and she thought it was because it was extremely awkward talking about guys—well not that Sai knew Sasuke was perhaps her love interest—with Sai.

Especially to someone like Sai, who didn't seem to harbor any romanticism in him at all, which she admitted sort of disappointed her, since she was actually starting to get to like him.

Sort of.

One of his eyebrows raised and he appeared to pause and hold his breath for a second. "Left the country?" he repeated curiously.

"Yeah," she said, fumbling with her phone, looking down at her lap, checking for any missed calls or texts unconsciously. _Hm, no signal here, _she thought, seeing no bars and remembering about the call she missed from Ino previously before. "Sasuke just left. He didn't even tell anyone." She caught herself before she said anything more, smiling. "Sorry, I didn't have to tell you that. All that has nothing to do with you, I shouldn't have you worry about that."

Sai shrugged. "Feel free to say whatever you wish. I don't really mind."

She paused to think recollect her thoughts a bit.

"Well, since we're talking about going out of country anyway, where else have _you_ been besides Amekagure?" she asked, remembering that his brushes were from there and his paints from Sand Country.

"I've been all over the place," he answered vaguely.

"So…where were you before coming to Konoha?"

"I was living in Kirigakure."

"All the way in Water Country?" Sakura asked, somewhat impressed. "That's pretty far."

Sai uttered a noncommittal grunt.

"So…you live temporarily everywhere?"

"I guess."

"…are you going to be moving out of _here_ soon?"

Sai shrugged and made a small frown, appearing to calculate the possibility in his head. "Not soon."

Sakura was about to ask more, but refrained from doing so, afraid of being too inquisitive, letting silence settle over the two of them instead.

"Well then," Sai said. "Thanks for dinner. I'll be getting back to work."

"Work?" she blurted in question.

"Like work…out," he clarified.

"Ah," she nodded in approval.

"I mean, I just lift a couple of things around. It's nothing too intense."

She chuckled. "Keeping healthy?"

"Like how you run."

Sakura gave him a grim smile. She knew she ran for different reasons than for her own health.

"Alright then," she concluded, standing up. "Have a nice night. Enjoy the food."

"Without doubt."

**flashback**

"_Hey Sak," Sasuke randomly blurted, forgetting the rest of the syllables of her name._

_She loved it when he did that. It meant he was deep in thought, and the fact that he was calling her name while deep in thought meant he was going to ask her honest opinion about something that he thought was important. And that meant that her opinion would be important to him._

_It made her feel special, she guessed, looking over his pensive face that was staring off at the traffic in front of him, left wrist resting on the steering wheel while his right hand supported his slightly tilted head._

_After all, Sasuke was one of those idiots that didn't usually listen to anyone else's discretion._

"_Hm?" she asked._

"_What would you do if you found out you had a brother you never knew about?"_

_At the moment, she didn't think that whatever she said might have influenced him later on._

_She would have never guessed that Sasuke might have actually taken her words to heart that one time._

"_Well…" she had said then. "I'd go find him."_

* * *

**Well I hope this story isn't boring you guys too much! I promise the action's coming! ;)**

**thir13enth**


	4. battery life

**Thank you guys! I got more reviews than usual for a chapter, so that definitely perked my day up! I'm glad to see you guys are actually trying to figure out who Sai is and what happened to Sasuke...it'll all make sense towards the end, lol! And yes, I have gone ahead and went backwards to revise the story a bit, rewriting only a few bits (not that it changes anything in the story of course!) and combining some chapters together. So this is not just chapter 4 all over again!**

**And also quick note pertaining to the story. Since this is an AU story, let's pretend that the universe the story exists in is an ideal world, and that the mail actually gets delivered in the morning and always on time.**

* * *

**Chapter Four:**

**battery life**

* * *

Running, as she always did, she saw Sai on the phone, leaning against his black sedan. She had noticed by now, after several times of watching, that he wasn't usually blabbering away on the phone, but that he was listening more than talking. But what really turned her curiosity was that she could have sworn she had heard the word him use the word 'sweetheart.'

But apparently he had no girlfriend. She probably heard wrong or something.

_Like how you run, _he had commented that Friday night.

Sakura wasn't sure why she remembered that comment out of all others, but she guessed it was because it was like Sai was making comparisons between him and her, and that might have implied he wanted to get to know her or something, or at least becoming good friends with her.

She wasn't sure why she was thinking of all these things in this sort of way. She truly hoped that she wasn't developing a crush on him, but if she was already somewhat infatuated by him, she guessed she couldn't help it, could she? Though, it was a bit disappointing that he wasn't showing any clear signs to her that he was actually truly interested in her.

_And he was always on that damn phone, _she thought, seeing him closer up, now only about 10 metres away.

He was probably lying about not having a girlfriend, though she couldn't think of any reason why he would be lying about that. But if that as the case, then she would definitely be staying away from Sai. Sakura did not want to be bothered with any exes or even current girlfriends, for sure.

Okay, geez. He intrigued her, she admitted. There was just so much that she didn't know about him. He was a shady character, perhaps not in the bad sense, but after a few dinners and encounters with him, she still didn't really know who he—

Her phone began to ring and she quickly pulled it out of her pocket, wondering who would possibly be calling her at such a time. Her screen:

_Sasuke Uchiha_

She stopped mid step, and her fingers were already shaking before she could press the accept button. Why was he calling now?! Was something wrong?! Oh geez, it was him! Finally!

"Hello?! Sasuke!" Sakura exclaimed, perhaps a bit louder than she intended. She reset her pace at a slow walk.

The wait for his response seemed like forever.

"Don't call me anymore."

She almost didn't process what she was hearing. "But I want to know how you're doing and I—"

"Delete this number from your phone."

"Sas—" and the line was dropped.

She pulled the phone from her ear, stopping. She stared at the screen awhile, seeing the words 'call ended' and '0:00:13' on the call time elapsed. Thoughts frozen, she unconsciously replaced the phone back into her pocket, and began to run again, her pace slow.

"You okay?" a voice suddenly asked almost directly behind her.

Sakura whipped around to see Sai.

"I noticed you looked a bit upset," he explained quickly. "And, uh, you mentioned one of the people you were talking about on Friday."

She nodded, eyebrows furrowing. She couldn't really think at the moment. Sasuke's phone call was still a major shock to her, and Sai's question wasn't quite expected either.

"Yeah…well, I'm okay," she answered, flashing a quick smile. "It was just Sasuke—I don't know if you remember him, but he just called, and um, told me not to call him anymore or something. I mean he's probably been busy or something, and I guess I have been calling him a bit too frequently," she lied, her voice quickening. She told herself to stop talking, but she couldn't keep her mouth from doing so, blabbering away excuses for Sasuke to be so cold.

Sai simply nodded.

"So, I see you calling someone every morning I pass by…who are you usually talking to?"

"Family," he said. And then anticipating her next question: "They live in another time zone."

How many people did she know called their own family members sweethearts? Her mind knew no one but she brushed aside his inconsistent answer. "Oh! So you're the only one over here?"

"Yeah," he answered. "I'm just working here."

"Painting?" she asked.

"Scenary," he clarified. "Konoha is a unique place to get landscapes."

"Mm, right," Sakura agreed. She stood there awhile.

"Well, don't you have to go back to work today?"

She would have said 'yes' and just left, except she was curious as to how he knew that.

"I mean, your vacation is over right?"

"How do you know that?"

"Oh," and he stepped back one. "It's just…you wear a watch when you run on work days."

Sakura's right hand touched her watch. "Oh yeah, it's that I don't want to lose the time and get to work late." She was astounded at how observant Sai was. She wouldn't have noticed it if she was watching herself. "Well, speaking about that, I guess I should get going, I spent a few minutes here already…see you later!"

**divider**

"Oh god, I was so worried about him too!" she cried, taking a seat and rubbing her eyes. "I hadn't heard from him in so long!"

"It's okay, Taro-san," Sakura comforted the elder lady. "We will take care of your husband to the best of our ability. We promise."

"I-I mean it was just twelve or fourteen hours I hadn't heard back from him, and it's not uncommon for him to be gone even longer than that while he's at work but I started to worry and thank god I did because otherwise he would have been probably dead!"

"That's very fortunate that you care so much for your husband," Sakura responded, putting her medical training of how to talk to patient family members into play and thus choosing her words carefully. All she had to do was to make sure that she didn't—as much as she wanted to—guarantee that the patient would be fine and healed up before she knew it, and that he'd stay alive under their care.

Those promises just couldn't be made.

"Thank you," the elderly lady sobbed. "You are such a kind girl, comforting obaa-san like so."

Sakura smiled genuinely, but she found a reflection of her own self in the elderly woman.

She hadn't heard from Sasuke in almost a _year_.

She was worried to hell about him.

And if anything, after hearing from him for so long, instead of making her settled in the fact that he was okay, Sasuke had instead actually made her worry even more now.

Don't call him anymore? Delete his number from her phone?

She knew Sasuke was cold, but he wasn't inconsiderate! He knew she would worry about him; if he ever contacted her—well, when he did—it would be to tell her not to worry about him, not to make her _delete_ him from her life!

There had to be something wrong.

But it wasn't like she could go ahead and call him to see what was happening on his end, right?

**divider**

"Finally, you're back!" Ayame gasped in exasperation when Sakura walked into the ramen kitchen from the back door.

"Well, I just took a break for a little while. It's not like I left for a vacation or something," Sakura defended, tying an apron around her waist.

"Do anything interesting?"

"Not particularly."

"You're lying," but Sakura knew Ayame was just joking. "So, how are your guys?"

"I haven't heard from Naruto in a while," Sakura replied. "And Sasuke…called me this morning."

"And said what?!"

"Nothing, really. I mean…he just said a few things."

"Like…?"

Sakura sighed. "Just to stop calling him. I guess I was annoying him with all the calls I was making recently or something."

"Ohhh, that damn Uchiha!" Ayame scowled. "I can't—"

The welcome bell from the front door of Ichiraku tinkled.

"Here, you get that," Ayame gestured. "I mean after a week of break, you can at least do that for me!" And before Sakura want to fetch the order, "And we'll continue this conversation ASAP!"

Sakura stepped out, a bit bitter because of having to talk about Sasuke just recently, but was struck by surprise by her ever seeming omnipresent neighbor, who ordered a simple miso with eggplant side to go.

"Alright, enjoy," she said, handing him the hot container over the counter after a moment.

"Thanks," he replied and stepped out.

Ayame joined Sakura seconds later.

"What's up with him?"

Sakura shrugged. "Nothing, I don't know."

"Well…you used to flirt with him!" Ayame said.

"Nah, that wasn't flirting; I was just getting to know him, being a new neighbor and all," Sakura denied.

Though she had to admit, she really actually knew practically nothing about him at all, while it seemed that he had already figured her out.

**thenextday**

The first thing Sakura scoured her mailbox for was a handwritten addressed letter from Naruto. She hadn't heard from him in a while, and that was weird, because Naruto was good at giving her updates on what he was up to, and in some ways he was more consistent than Sasuke.

Besides, she really needed to feel Naruto's presence around. Especially after this morning with Sasuke.

_Naruto caught Sakura looking at a photograph of Sasuke. It was from that day they were on the beach when they completely downed her precious strawberry milkshake and later treated her individually to strawberry shakes at the same time at different stands._

_This was a picture of Naruto and Sasuke scowling at each other, holding out a shake to the camera, which Sakura was behind. She could just hear their conversation from that day right from that picture, some petty argument about how the other always got in the other's way, later apparently fighting over Sakura's forgiveness, which she had just found stupid of them to argue over._

_But then again, they fought and competed over _everything_. That was her Naruto and Sasuke: always fighting, always brothers._

"_You really miss him, don't you?" Naruto sighed, sitting down beside her to graze his eyes over the photograph as well._

"_Don't you?"_

"_I guess I have to admit it," Naruto rolled his eyes, and this made Sakura laugh—something she hadn't genuinely done for a few months._

"_I just wonder if you'd miss me this much if it were me out there and Sasuke who was the one sitting by you right now," he said suddenly._

_Sakura was stunned by Naruto's question._

"_Of course I would be missing you and worrying about you this much!" Sakura exclaimed, but she knew where the question came from—it was because Naruto was hurt seeing her so weakened by Sasuke's leave that he was wondering if she regarded Naruto as closely as she did Sasuke. "If anything, I'd be worrying about you more because you're such a knuckleheaded reckless idiot!"_

_This made Naruto smile, but even Sakura wasn't sure if it was a real smile. He sighed, and slowly rose from his seat._

"_Sakura, let me know if you ever get lonely," he said, as he walked out of her room. "I'll be there to keep you company regardless."_

It was after that she began to realize that she really depended upon Naruto for a lot of things.

It was after that she began to hurt for Naruto because she knew she couldn't return his feelings.

After a while of shuffling through ads, she came across another odd card instead.

_Sakura,_

_Dinner with me Wednesday night? Let me know where you want to go._

_Sai_

Sakura thought for a moment. Today was…Wednesday.

Well that was odd. Wait—

_She was startled when seeing Sai running right behind her._

"_S-Sai!" she gasped, almost tripping over herself in surprise and immediately halting her jog._

"_Oh no, it's nothing, I was just catching up to you to tell you to ignore whatever mail you get today."_

"_What?" her eyebrows furrowed deeply. What the fuck was he talking about?_

_But Sai was already running back towards his home, flipping a phone out of his pocket._

Everything he said clicked. Well…at least to the point where she knew she wasn't supposed to take this message seriously. She didn't really understand exactly what was going on…did he just ask her out and then cancel it or something? Or…what?

Whatever, he advised her to ignore the mail. And she would.

**atleastforawhile**

She stopped by his house before going to Ichiraku, quickly climbing out of her car and stepping towards his porch, rapping on the door twice.

He opened the door a few moments later, chirping a quick 'hey' upon seeing her.

She returned the greeting. "So…what exactly did you mean by…this letter?" she asked, and her tone indicated that she was unsure of the question she was asking herself as well. She held up the card with the message from this morning.

Sai nodded. "I got the same thing this morning," he explained, "but I didn't think it was from you."

Huh?

"My guess is that it was a set up date or something, because if it really was you telling me that you'd let me know later about what restaurant you wanted to go to, then you would have told me that while passing by in the morning like you do every day. After figuring it was a set up, I figured you probably had the same type of letter—yours probably read something like 'what restaurant do you want to go to?' or whatever else in similar words."

_Now _everything really clicked, and Sakura suddenly knew who was probably behind all this, and cursed the boar of her best friend for doing such a thing.

"I see," Sakura said, holding back some anger and utter embarrassment. She stood there a while, looking down, shuffling her feet a bit. "Well, are you interested in hanging with me tonight anyway?"

His eyes met hers in surprise, but he didn't carry any facial reaction.

"It's not Friday and I don't really feel like cooking," she shrugged, explaining the rational reasons. "I thought it would be nice if you could go eat with me. It doesn't have to be a date or anything, but I just thought I could get to know you a bit better too. I mean honestly you're still—" and she stopped, suddenly realizing that she was just trailing on a bit too excessively trying to get away from the fact that she literally just asked him out. She felt extremely stupid about what she was saying, and looked away.

"Alright."

Her eyes followed back to him to see him shrug. "We'll go somewhere," he continued. "I'll pick you up at nine tonight."

_Oh, he was just being nice_, she thought. This idea was just really stupid of her. Was she actually starting to like him? No, she probably wasn't just _starting _to like him, she probably was already pretty obsessed by him to have almost unconsciously made an offer like that. Oh god, she didn't _like _him, did she?! She was supposed to be infatuated with Sasuke!

This was like two-timing her feelings!

**divider**

"Oh," Ayame said, surprised as she watched Sakura wash her hands and put on an apron before going to the kitchen to boil some noodles. "I thought you weren't coming in for work today."

Sakura's eyes narrowed slightly. "What made you think that?"

Ayame appeared to hiccup some words back. She was pretty bad at playing innocent.

"W-well you're not usually late and I don't know…"

Sakura looked down at her watch. "I'm just five minutes late."

"You're usually early or right on time for work! I thought if you weren't showing up on time, you weren't com—"

"Ino told you that I was going to go on a date with Sai, right?" Sakura shot, having a feeling she had hit it on the spot.

"Uh…yes."

**divider**

"I can't believe you guys."

"What?" Ino's face was genuinely clueless. After all, Sakura had just driven up to her home unannounced and started to talk extremely angrily at her.

Sakura shifted her weight from one foot to the other, knocking her knuckles onto Ino's black granite kitchen counter. "Why'd you do that? That was extremely embarrassing."

"I don't know what—"

"My date with Sai?" Sakura interrupted. "What in hell were you thinking?! It was so fucking embarrassing! He knew it was a set up and told me before I even checked the mail! And what…I mean, this is all fun and games if I knew him better, but I barely know this guy at all!"

"I don't know, Sakura!" Ino exclaimed, exasperated. "I'm sure it's fine, it's not like your reputation was destroyed or something and I mean…I don't know, I think you need someone and I think that you guys can probably work it out, awkward kinks and all." She sighed. "I heard about Sasuke from Ayame and how he essentially told you to fuck off, so I was like, 'what the hell' and I made the move for you. I mean it's not like _you _did it yourself; you just told me right now that Sai knew it was a set up, so it's not like you were the one asking him out or anything."

Sakura held her head in one hand in frustration.

"Besides, I'm thinking you sort of like him anyway—"

"Don't interfere like that. Actually, don't even worry about me. I'm absolutely _fine._"

"It's just—"

"Ino, I'm grateful that you care enough about me to go so far for me. But _this _is completely uncalled for! Who are you to say that I need someone anyway? This is just way too much! I can't believe you. I just wish you guys would leave me alone because I'm fine. Yes, I miss Sasuke. Yes, I miss Naruto. But no, I am completely fine—"

"Your _parents _called me to ask how you were," and after that sentence made Sakura shut her mouth, Ino continued, "They called me to ask about you and I couldn't really answer anything but 'oh I think she's fine' and I couldn't tell them anything more but a generic answer! Why? Because I really _don't _know if you're fine. I'd love to tell them that you're doing great with your residency and that Tsunade-sensei is favoring you over the other students, but can I just _ignore _the fact that Tsunada-sensei suggested you take a break off for emotional purposes and not tell them about that? I can't just not tell them that! Because what happens if you end up extremely depressed or god forbid, you commit suicide! What kind of a friend am I then? Did I just _watch _you fall? Did I _help _you at all?"

Ino sighed sharply, her face contorted in agony and concern. "What can I tell them if something like that happened? That I was an irresponsible friend? That I didn't really care about you? And even if I did tell them that you weren't okay, I didn't know why, and I didn't know what to do? What kind of a friend doesn't know either?"

After some minutes, Sakura replied, "You're just…overreacting, Ino. Nothing is wrong—"

"Yes, there is! Yes there _fucking _is! It's so frustrating to see you down all the time! I'm trying to help, but you just keep me on the sidelines and it's _hurting _me to see you like this without me being able to do _anything _for you! I ask you all the time about what I can do to help you or how I can help you feel better, but you keep denying that something is wrong, and you _continue _ to go ahead and run your legs off, cry your heart out on the pillow, check your mailbox and phone religiously, and whatever crap you do! It's like you're _living _for Sasuke—and now you're _living _for your worry for Naruto, too!" Ino breathed in deeply. "And then I just sit there and watch you disintegrate! It's just so _frustruating_! So fucking _frustruating_!"

By now, Sakura's throat was knotted and her cheeks were burning in raw emotion. "Ino. I'm sorry," she apologized, and that was really all she could get out at the moment. It was just so difficult: Ino was really trying and Sakura knew she appreciated it but things just didn't work out that way and Sakura knew that she would never want to let anyone worry about her no matter how down she was. And she would always deny any claims that she wasn't alright. That was just the way she was, and she felt like she couldn't help it or that she couldn't just change herself overnight.

She felt like she could understand Ino's frustration and she caught it, finding herself unable to change herself for Ino's sake.

Sakura stepped forward and hugged Ino tightly, and the other girl returned it, a controlled sniffle escaping. "I'm so sorry…"

They held each other a moment, understanding threading through their embrace.

"Anyways," Sakura said, rubbing her eyes and pulling away. "I, um, I actually have to go," she forced a laugh. "Sai's picking me up at nine."

Ino's forming tears turned into surprised bewilderment. "What? You're on a date with him after all?!"

"You could have made the set up a lot cleverer," Sakura chuckled. "I actually had to ask him in person for a real dinner—"

"You're going out with him after all! I did my job!" Ino laughed. "Gosh, you _whore_!"

"Shut up!" Sakura retorted, brushing the remaining tears out of her eyes. "It's not a date!"

"Go bitch! Don't talk to me! Acting like I didn't do shit!" Ino huffed in disapproval. "Get out! Get out of here!" she said, pushing Sakura playfully out the door. "Don't do anything too crazy!"

**divider**

She had the hardest time trying to figure out whether she was going to wear something normal so it wouldn't seem like a date or if she should wear something nice anyway because he was going to be taking her. The hardest part was that she didn't know what _he _was going to be wearing. She thought it safest to stick with a nice shirt and pants. She hesitated before picking up lip gloss and applying it very sparingly to her lips.

Of course, she couldn't understand why this was taking up so much thought for just for a dinner with Sai, especially because she had definitely had had dinner with him before, but she guessed she had decided to go along with the notion that she perhaps she did like him after all, and that she was going to be giving him a chance or something.

Sai arrived on time, and she was out the door before he even got to it, in his normal black shirt and black jeans.

Well if anything, the clothes looked cleaner and crisper than usual…right?

She sighed internally. Maybe she was the only one that was actually thinking of this dinner as anything beyond just a time to eat together.

_Whatever_, she thought, and didn't let it bother her that she felt a bit overdressed for the occasion. It seemed perhaps Sai wasn't interested in her at all—so far as to not even dress differently for a nice restaurant dinner. He wasn't taking this as a date—he'd just be eating.

"So?" Sai asked suddenly, startling her mid-thought. "Where to?"

She thought for a moment, since she actually didn't eat out too much and had no idea what to answer.

It didn't help that from the corner of her eye she saw him looking her over—well, briefly, if anything. But she thought that made all the difference.

"What about…Imperial Dragon? It's like off 27th Avenue if you go a bit south from here," she suggested, taking the name from TenTen's most recent text that informed Sakura all about her first date with Neji.

"Oh, yeah, I think I've passed by there a few times," Sai replied, leaning back into his seat and shifting the gears to drive.

**divider**

She caught him looking her over again while she was ordering, and it made her stop in the middle of saying the meal. She caught him watching her and he gave her a soft smile, and she thought that it probably was a good idea after all that she decided to dress herself up a bit for the night.

"You have stuff on your lips today," he commented.

"Yeah…" and she found nothing else to say, though she laughed once at how he said 'stuff' rather than 'gloss' or even 'lipstick.' She found it rather cute—

She realized that she liked that he noticed this.

"You notice a lot of things," she concluded, remembering the other day with the watch and him mentioning the letters from the Army on her counter.

He shrugged. "Comes with being an artist. A stickler for details, I guess."

"Hm," she nodded.

"I…apologize," he began, "if you feel like I haven't introduced myself to you that well, or if I still feel like a mystery to you." She was about to protest that she hadn't really meant that, but he continued before she could say anything. "I just find it hard to communicate well with people and I'm not the type to disclose information either, so I apologize about that."

"Oh no, no, no!" she shook her head. "I mean, what do I expect? I just met you a while ago and I hardly see you very much anyway! Besides, I was probably just overreacting because, you know, random crap situations and things."

"Oh," he said. "Like that guy?"

"Yeah…" she affirmed, noting also that Sai had exceptional memory. "Sasuke, yeah." She pondered to herself a moment. "I don't care what he says. I'm going to keep his number on my phone." She looked over at Sai, who just nodded. Oh right, it was a bit awkward talking about other guys to him…especially now that she was actually considering giving him a chance now…

She watched him swirl the ice around in his cup of water and before he took a gulp of water, she asked him, "Sai, what do you think of—"

Her phone loved to ring at the most inconvenient moments.

She excused herself and reached into her purse for her phone, seeing an unknown number on her screen. She thought once to just ignore it, but thought better of it, just in case maybe, something came up or…she didn't know, she just took the call.

"Hello?" Sakura asked tentatively.

"Okay, okay. I know you're going to kill me, but don't do it yet. I'm calling you from the inside of a cave where we are fortunately just happen to be getting signal—"

"Naruto!?"

"Yep, it's me."

"What's going on!? I haven't heard from you in a while! Is everything okay?" Sakura caught her loud talking and looked up at Sai, who looked at her like he understood the urgency of her call.

"Yeah, yeah, everything's alright," Naruto said.

Her smile in hearing Naruto's voice began to fade away.

"You're lying," she said. She knew him well enough to know the voice with the actual genuine okay versus the one with only the shell of it. Naruto was like her in that way. He would never say that he wasn't okay, in fear that someone would worry about him.

It took Naruto a full minute to answer. "Our base was infiltrated," he said finally.

She didn't respond, even though she wanted to blurt question after question out. Was he injured? Did anyone die? Was he safe right now?

"We're taking shelter in some cave."

"That's horrible! Are things really that bad there? Are you okay? Are you hurt?!"

"Everything's fine, Sakura. I mean it's just a few soldiers and me, I'm actually not sure where the rest of them are. In fact, the cave's really pretty. There's a bunch of bright blue and purple crystals giving off this really nice glow that makes the whole place look better than the night sky. They all look like stars, hanging off from the top of the cave and all, and some of them are even twinkling—"

"Don't give me that bullshit!" Sakura exclaimed, worry staining her voice. "What's going on?!"

"Please," Naruto said, and she shut up, realizing that it wasn't the best time for her to be worrying. Ironically enough, she suddenly saw herself in Naruto and Ino in herself in this situation.

"I just wanted to let you know that I'm actually alright, and that's it's a lot more peaceful here than I have ever experienced before," he said slowly. "And I don't need anything else, you know? Just seeing the prettiest lights up above, sitting tight and snug on the cave ground, just listening and talking to you…what else could I ask for? Everything's alright for me. It's all good. I just…might be stuck in a little mess right now, you know, our mission didn't really go through, but as of right now, I'm okay."

She held on tight to the phone, wanting to say so much, but at the same time, unable to say anything.

"Well, I think I'll get going now."

"Wait," she blurted. "You usually have at least five minutes or something!"

"Yeah," he agreed.

Then he breathed in.

"But the battery on this cell phone is almost out…and I…want to be able to give the others a chance to say their goodbyes as well."

* * *

**Oh no!**

**thir13enth**


	5. grabbing hold

**Well it's been a while since I've updated this story, but I just wanted to say how surprised I am at the turnout for this story! You guys keep me writing and I hope to keep your appetites for the plot strong!**

**This chapter actually took me quite a while to actually start, mostly because nothing really happens in it (well in my opinion, though that might be a huge understatement for you guys). In any case, thank you readers, for all the little things that you do make an author like me feel very good. **

**But anywho, on with the story!**

* * *

**Chapter Five:**

**grabbing hold**

* * *

"_But the battery on this cell phone is almost out…and I…want to be able to give the others a chance to say their goodbyes as well."_

"Wait," she blurted. "Wait, what do you mean—?"

But the other line went dead.

"Oh my god," were the words that she found when she looked back up at Sai, tears frozen in her eyes, phone frozen on her cheek.

…_our mission didn't really go through…_

…_a chance to say their goodbyes as well…_

Sai caught her insecurity immediately, his eyebrows knitting together. "What, what's wrong?" he asked urgently, but she was already up out of her seat, excusing herself and ignoring his arm that reached out for her, heading straight for the next restroom.

Thankfully there was no one else there, and she continued to the first sink, leaning both hands on the counter and forcing herself to stare straight into the mirror back at herself.

_Don't cry_, she told herself, even though she knew that was useless. In the mirror reflecting back at her were her liquidating green eyes, tightly wounded eyebrows, quivering bottom lip—her elbows rested on either side of the sink, her face covered by her hands, quiet sobs muffled by her incessant denial. "No, no, no, no…"

What the hell was he thinking to call her like that? What was going on? What did he mean their mission didn't really go through? She should have never let him run off to the Army! She should have just convinced him to stay—she should have been stronger, less selfish! And it was all her fault and now—

She was going to lose him. She was going to lose the only other person she had ever really cared about. She was losing—or had lost—Sasuke, Naruto, both of them.

And she couldn't do anything about it but cry.

Stifling, hiding her glazing eyes from her reflection in the mirror, she tried to convince herself that just because Naruto had given her a final farewell did not mean that he wasn't going to survive.

But doubt nagged at her.

It wasn't the first time that something like this had happened.

**flashback**

_Snatching her phone up from the kitchen counter, Sakura looked briefly at the caller ID and then snarled, "Hello Sasuke. What do you want now?"_

"_Hey Sak," he said, in a tone that made her regret the way she started the conversation. "Uh…bad news."_

_Her breath paused for a moment. "What?" she asked, stopping everything she was doing, in the hope that it wasn't serious._

"_I'm stopping by your house to pick you up, 'kay?"_

"_That's not bad—" and she heard the phone line go dead. "Sasuke!" she yelled into the speaker even though she knew the connection was already cut._

_Minutes later, she was getting into Sasuke's car, and she wanted answers._

"_Sasuke, I don't understand what the hell is going on—" and she stopped when seeing Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed, something that she didn't usually see on his carefree and worriless self._

"_Naruto's in the hospital," he explained briefly while pressing down hard on the accelerator._

_Her head jerked back in both surprise and momentum of the car. "What do you mean?! Is he alright?!"_

"_He got into a car accident earlier today. Lost a lot of blood. Going in and out of consciousness," and here Sasuke took a deep breath in. "They're not sure if he can make it, even with a blood transfusion because the huge blood loss was a shock to his body system."_

_Her mouth remained slightly open and she looked away, out the car window at the landscape rushing by. She swallowed hard, and tried to figure out something to say or ask, but wasn't able to process that before they later parked and rushed over to the emergency wing of the hospital._

_Naruto didn't look like he belonged in a room as white as this, his body dead still and eyes closed even though there was more than enough commotion all around him. _

_It wasn't his time to go yet either._

_Sakura found some light comfort in seeing a steady heartbeat on his monitor, the spikes giving her sparks of hope._

"_Sakura…"_

_And she turned around, eyes locking onto Naruto's crystal blue orbs. She wasn't sure how, but in all the noise and havoc surrounding him, she had somehow heard his weak whisper. _

"_Why are you crying?" he asked._

_How could she explain her frantic emotions? It was the very first time that her heart had ever beat this rapidly, the very first time that something in her life would be toppled, the very first time that she realized that nothing was permanent._

_Why wouldn't she be crying?_

_Naruto interrupted her thoughts, "I'm not dead yet."_

**backtopresent**

Even in the face of death he would smile.

Could she trust his optimism now?

Or would it hurt more to hope?

She was _losing _him for god's sake. She could cry, right? She should be able to worry without being seen as too emotional, right? She wasn't taking this too seriously, right?

God, she just couldn't think anymore. Couldn't process any more thoughts, or sort herself out.

She could just cry.

And god, it was so much worse now that there was no one else there beside her. Naruto was there when Sasuke left. But now that Naruto was _leaving_…she didn't have anyone else. Those two knew her best and worst, knew her inside out, knew her better than she did herself. They comforted her, supported her, cared for her.

She was clinging onto Naruto ever since Sasuke was gone, not being able to bear with even the _thought _of losing another one.

But he was torn away.

_No. Shit. Stop, Sakura, _she slapped herself mentally. They weren't gone. Sasuke just left; she'd hear back from him soon. Naruto was just in a dangerous situation; she'd just silently pray for him.

It wasn't the end. It wasn't the fucking end.

And even _if _they were both gone, it wasn't the fucking end of the—

God, no, she just very much wanted them to _stay. _She wasn't going to think of their absence.

That would just break her to pieces and drown her in salty tears.

No. They were there. They were _out_ there. They were doing as well as they could manage.

Sakura's head rose from the sink and she pulled open the water to splash cold over her face. Before stepping out, she pushed her face into paper towels to dry, and wanted for a few seconds to allow her face to cool.

It was okay. Just take this all one step at a time.

And she pushed through the door to exit the restroom, finding Sai waiting for her by the corner just outside. She walked up to his side, respecting that he had even considered her emotions.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly.

She rubbed an eye as nonchalantly as possible, throat still aching from trying to swallow the ball that formed at her throat to keep from crying. She shook her head quickly, in such a way that remarked, 'it doesn't matter' and strode right back to their table to pick up a fork and attempted to eat again.

She played around with the food, however, and found her mind so distracted that she could not.

Sai noticed this, and suggested, "Let's pack it for later then."

He drove her home, discussing nothing and letting the silence speak for itself.

**divider**

The next morning she ran until she was so far that she didn't know where she was anymore, and crumpled down onto a patch of grass by a tree at a nearby park, her head down in both hands, eyes dry and cheeks stained with sweaty tears.

Ino found her by chance at the side of the road, and took her home. Ino didn't ask about it, and Sakura didn't want to talk about it.

"I'm going to inform Tsunade and Ayame," Ino said quietly, when Sakura softly thanked Ino and stepped out of the car back into her own home, finding a package of paints and some paper at her doorstep.

Picking it up, Sakura wiped some remnants of tear away and broke a smile when she noticed the brand of the paintbrushes, carved letters on the wood: Amekagure.

_Sai_, she thought briefly before turning her eyes towards the colors.

**divider**

Even after a brooding few hours, she still wasn't sure that all her emotions were out on the mess of the painting that she had created. She glanced down at the watch that was still strapped securely around her left wrist, reading 2:45 AM.

Her cell phone suddenly rang, and she dropped the paintbrush on the floor scrambling to take the call.

"Hello? Hello?" she asked quickly, not even looking at the number on the screen.

Just the two second pause of silence told her who it was.

"Hey Sakura..." and she heard a small soft warm smile through the speakers. "I didn't think you'd be sleeping yet."

"Naruto," she faintly exclaimed, gasping in a hurried breath.

"Are you okay?" he said before she asked anything else.

"Are you safe?"

"I'm fine," he said, but she knew he wasn't telling her the whole story. "Don't worry about me."

"N-," but she stopped herself. She was about to argue, give him a huge speech asking him what the hell she could do to save him, where he was, what he needed, why she _should _be worrying and not sleeping easily.

But…she decided that this time, she would listen to what he had to say, and meditate on Naruto's calmness.

Just to trust in his optimism.

_Where are you? What's happening? What do you mean 'everyone has to say goodbye?'_

"So," she said, in a quiet voice. "You were talking about lights that you were seeing?" She was glad that the question ended there, because otherwise she would have choked on a tear.

"Ah," Naruto replied, and she felt him breathe out a long sigh of relief, as though he was expecting her to be acting fanatical against his rather indifferent attitude to his situation.

She felt some happiness with that, but what Naruto wouldn't know was that tears were running onto her cell phone from her cheek that she was pressing deeply onto her face, as she was trying to extract as much of his voice as she could from the speaker.

"They're fluorescent green. All over the place."

_Where are you? I know you're not okay. What's happening? Why are you saying goodbye? Why are you calling me? _

"That sounds very pretty," and her voice shook.

"They reminded me of you. That's why I called you," he continued. "They're kinda like your eyes when you're smiling. Genuinely. It's a beautiful sight, something worth leaving to."

_Where are you? What's happening? Why are you calling me? Why am I the first person you thought of?_

_Why am I the last person you wanted to hear?_

"Alright then," Naruto concluded, heaving a sigh. "I'm probably keeping you up too—"

_Please don't leave me._

"That's okay, I'll be here for you," she interrupted.

One second later, he replied, "You always are, Sakura. I wish that I was able to pay you back somehow."

"But you're there for me more than I am there for you," she wanted to say. "I'm always leaning on you."

"Night, Sakura," Naruto said, before she was able to do so.

The phone line dropped after she repeated the same thing.

She knew what Naruto wanted to say deep in his heart to her; she could feel it in the desperation of his voice.

Naruto, Naruto, Naruto...

_What am I going to do without—_

A knock sounded at her door, and her head whipped up in the direction of the front door.

Some ungodly hour, who the hell is awake?

She stepped towards her front door, still clutching her cell phone tight in her hand.

"Hi Sai," she greeted upon seeing the fair face.

She wasn't sure what to think. Maybe she was just happy to see a familiar face.

"You're doing okay?"

She nodded.

"I just saw your car in the parking lot and your lights on," he explained. "I mean, I know something went wrong earlier today evening. I'm sorry if I—"

"No, no, it definitely had nothing to do with you," she clarified. "It was just…" and then she looked up at his face before determining whether to continue with her talk or not. It was always like this. She could never keep her emotions controlled and to herself. It was always—

But a look at his concerned eyes, and Sakura suddenly felt obliged to tell her story, which she did, after a moment's hesistation.

His mouth twisted in sympathy; the stoic face suddenly looking like it at least had the potential to express emotion. "Well, um, I hope things turn out for the better," he said briefly, and started to walk back down her porch stairs. Before he turned, she felt her own arms move forward, and they caught Sai, bringing him into a stiff embrace.

She pushed her face into his shoulder, her embrace shaky and tearwrought.

He didn't move, just let her stand there against her.

"Let me know if you need anything," and his baritone rumbled through his chest.

She saw him leave and then found herself thinking: _I need you...to just stay here...with me._

Then she realized that Ino was right along. There was a part of her that feared being alone. That same part of her was clinging onto Sasuke, was devastated when Naruto was going to leave, and now, with no one else left, that part of her had to obsess over Sai!

Disgusted with herself, Sakura resolved that she had to return the paints and that she was going to deal with her own emotional problems by herself, and take herself away from being dependent on others, who shouldn't be carrying her burden for her in the first place. She wasn't going to let her pathetic lonely self get in the way of anybody, including her own future plans; she would just deal with all this herself, and carry on with life!

After gathering the paints and brushes, she quickly jogged over to Sai's house, assuming that he wasn't asleep.

The door opened almost immediately, and he blinked when he saw her.

"Thanks for the paints, but I don't need them," she said, pushing the art supplies into his arms. "Sorry about that—putting yourself through the trouble."

"Oh no, honestly, it's perfectly fine."

She didn't want to hear any more of his good intentions; that would just make her want to depend on him, make him another 'Sasuke' or 'Naruto.'

She shook her head and gave him a smile and quickly retreated away, and when she got home, she sat at her kitchen table in silence for a while, flicking her phone open every now and then. She was overwhelmed with the urge to talk to someone, but it was late and she wasn't going to allow herself to trouble others, especially after she had just resolved to not.

Hoping that sleep would help her forget everything that had happened previously that day, she headed upstairs to her bedroom, and noticed the open window. She tiredly pushed back down on the glass, but was stopped, arms from behind her grabbing hold of her waist and pulling her back, a hand tightly clamped around her mouth.

"Don't move, resist, or say a word, or I'll kill you—right here and now."

* * *

**:O!**

**thir13enth**


	6. wrong number

**Heehee, thanks for the reviews and messages! I'm so excited about your reactions for this chapter, especially after all the barrage from the last chapter! For those of you that PM-ed me about the story and stuff, I'm keeping my lips zipped but if you were looking at me from across the computer screen, you'd see me cackling evilly. **

**Yeah, here is where things start to turn around in this story. From here on out, shit's going down.**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

**Chapter Six:**

**wrong number**

* * *

She was blindfolded. The rest was muffled screaming and enough moving of her tied-up body to make her dizzy and unconscious.

But she felt cold hard against her back, and the slight bounce that accompanied it, and she knew she was being hoisted into the trunk of a car. She kicked aimlessly, not being able to see anything, but she knew that she was kicking torsos and legs.

"Stop!" she was crying out, but the rag in her mouth made her cry incomprehensible. "Who the hell are you? What the hell are you guys doing to me? Help!"

"God, shut the hell up, bitch!" she heard a male voice say, and then she felt something knock into her head, the last conscious thought she had before falling into nothingness.

**divider**

She awoke in an empty room, and narrowed her eyes against the bright white light.

"Morning," someone said, and her head turn in that direction, except she found her upper torso strapped down to a chair. Her feet were tied at the legs and her arms were behind the back of the chair.

What the devil was going on? Why…what was she being…taken hostage for?

"Why—"

"Sakura Haruno," she was interrupted by the man that was taking a seat across the table from her. Slicked medium-length silver hair framing his face with a strange shade of purple eyes. He was reading off a card in his left hand, and a familiar looking wallet in his right hand.

When did he obtain that? She wasn't even carrying it last night. They had probably rummaged through her house, but—why?

"Apparently, you are implied to know Sasuke Uchiha," he said, putting her things down in the table, right in front of her, knowing that she wouldn't be able to retrieve them. "Is this true?"

She didn't want to answer, because she wanted answers about why she was here, and who she was dealing with, and where she was. But even if she wasn't concerned about that, she wasn't sure if she should answer the man's question anyway.

What do they want with Sasuke? Don't they know that no one knew where he was? But if that was the case, then why were they looking for him?

So she didn't say a word, because she knew her questions weren't going to be answered, and it didn't seem like telling the truth was going to easily get her out of the situation.

Had Sasuke done something wrong and she was going to play testimony to that? But then why was she being held as though she was the one in trouble?

The man clicked his tongue, and leaned forward in his chair. She noticed a necklace slipped out from under his shirt collar, a circle-shaped pendant that held an upside down triangle. She brought her eyes back up to his face, and she tried to read his face, tried to guess what her situation was.

"Look miss, I don't have that much fucking time. I fucking have patience to deal with bitches like you either. I'm just the interrogator of my group, he said and then his mouth was suddenly eerily close to her left ear. "Do you know why?"

She tried to hold back her disgust, and said nothing. She wasn't going to talk to him, she decided. She'd stay quiet for as long as possible. She wasn't going to tell him anything. Or give any information to his group, whatever that group was.

"It's because I torture people," he answered the question for her. "And I do it well."

Torture. Suddenly the word felt very distant from her. What kind of situation was this? She would have never expected her to end up in this kind of turn of events.

Torture.

Would she keep silent?

"Now," he continued, returning to his chair, slumping into the seat. "Let me ask you once more time. Do you know Sasuke Uchiha?"

What trouble was Sasuke in anyway? This obviously wasn't the civilian police department. This was something else.

She wasn't saying anything, the more and more time was elapsing since the man had asked her the question. Torture…

"No," she decided. "I don't know this person."

"Oh?" and the man rose his eyebrows in amusement. He pulled out something from under the table. "Who is this on your phone?"

Her heart stopped when she saw her cell phone in his hand, the name Sasuke Uchiha highlighted.

What…why was she in this mess again? What did she do?

And then suddenly a realization: Sasuke had told her to delete his number earlier.

He knew he was in trouble.

This is truly why he wanted her to stop calling her_. Shit!_ What the hell was she going to do now?"

"Yes, I do know Sasuke Uchiha," she finally said, and she hoped that their Sasuke Uchiha was not the same one that she knew. But for some reason, those odds were just too low. This was group that was probably efficient. They would take the wrong person hostage.

"Okay, good, now that you're not giving me shit, tell me where the fuck he is," the silver-haired man continued.

"I don't know," she stated. This, she meant. But she wasn't going to give them any hints on his whereabouts either.

Fuck, she had totally screwed up. Why didn't she just listen to Sasuke and delete his number when he told her too?! She wasn't expecting this! What was Sasuke getting into?

"Isn't he out of the country?"

She breathed out sharply. "I wouldn't know."

"Yes you would," he argued. "We tracked this number on his cell phone, and you call him a shitload of times."

She said nothing, but felt her eyebrows furrow.

"You know, Miss Haruno. You should just tell us the truth, because you're not going to be the one getting hurt. Unless you fuck around with us now." The man shifted sitting positions. "We just wanted to ask you some questions—"

"You could have done this after knocking on the front door," Sakura snapped.

"Oh no, we're a top international organization," he replied. "We operate at much higher clearances than even the shitty government."

Here was her chance. "Who are you guys?"

The man looked at her in disbelief, as though he was thoroughly surprised that she was even attempting to ask that question. "Akatsuki," he said, in any case.

She said nothing. Was she going to believe what he was telling her?

"It's okay if you don't know us," the man added. "Sasuke Uchiha, though, has been a bad punk, so we need to set him right."

"What has he done?"

"He's a threat. To everyone."

When she didn't seem to react to this, the man continued, "He's performed countless assassinations, took part and organized many robberies, and hell, I even think he might have raped several women—"

"You're lying," she blurted out. "Sasuke—"

"So you really do know him."

And she bit her tongue.

Was she going to protect Sasuke? Or should she believe whatever information this man was giving her?

"I know international news doesn't always feed over borders, but…" and then he pulled out articles from the side, from the Sand Country, the Wind Country, all over the place. Sasuke Uchiha was circled on all of these papers, but most of the time, Sasuke's name was on the headlines, accused of shooting a bank manager, robbing jewelry store, assassinating a local mayor…

She suddenly realized that her mouth had fallen open and she quickly closed her mouth, closing her eyes, perhaps in shame. "Sasuke would never do that. Sasuke isn't a criminal."

"Sorry to shatter your dreams. We're trying to catch this fucker. Help us out."

"I don't know anything more," she answered. "And for all I know, you could be lying! You're just trying to manipulate me. These articles are fakes!"

Her interrogator laughed. "Pff bitch! I don't have _that _much time on my hands," and then he flicked open a pocket knife. "So don't waste any more of it." Then he tapped her cell phone. "And you're not the only one that's going to be hurt. All your contacts here too; I can track them all down."

The door to the room opened behind him, and another voice said, "Hidan. You always talk too much. Get the work done."

"Alright, alright," her interrogator replied. "I get the idea." Then he turned his attention back to Sakura. "Alright, bitch, where is Sasuke Uchiha?"

"I don't know."

"If you don't know, then call him and ask," Hidan said. When she looked at him with slight uncertainty, he added, "If you say one word about us, all your friends are dead. Each and every single damn one."

**divider**

Her phone was hooked up to another device, and her hands were released so that she could pick up the phone for herself. Hidan tossed her cell phone to her, and she, after catching, stared at the object for a long time in her hand.

God, this wasn't going to turn out well. What could she do? How was she going to prevent anything from happening to everyone?

Just last night Naruto called her to tell her that he was in his last moments alive. Today, if she made the wrong move, everything would go wrong, and all that she had ever known would be wiped clean.

Why. Why was she in this situation? What could she do to stop all this?

She prayed it was a dream. But she wouldn't wake up, no matter how scared she was.

"Come on, now," Hidan coaxed her.

How long has she been here, trying to keep her composure? How long has she been staring at the phone, which she was hesitating to dial?

She looked up at Hidan's face. And his chin dipped forward to gesture for her to carry on.

She looked down at her phone. She wasn't going to do this.

A painful sting suddenly arrested her left arm. Gasping, she looked down to see a long gash across her left arm, it suddenly dripping red. She looked back up at Hidan, who gave her a smile and twirled the pocket knife in his hands.

"Don't waste my damn time."

Screw it, she was already in the process of being tortured. All she would have to do is endur—

She held her breath against another slash of her left arm. She didn't want to look down, but she did, and suddenly was very concerned at the amount of blood dripping down her hands onto the floor.

She wasn't going to care. Whatever. And she closed her eyes again.

She screamed in pain at the next one, squirming at the burn at her abdomen. She jerked, and her eyes peeled open to see a metal rod, probably hot, extending from across the table, at the other end, Hidan. Forcing herself to breathe calmly, Sakura closed her eyes again.

"I could actually leave this shit on your skin to roast."

She didn't react.

"Just call him."

"He's not going to pick up anyway," she suddenly said, not even thinking about it. Was she just scared of what else was going to happen to her? Was she trying to stall?

"I don't care. Just fucking call him. We can track the damn shit, and he wouldn't be suspicious if it was your number."

She grit her teeth.

"Honestly, I could press the call button myself, but I'd rather you do it because I'm too fucking lazy and well, my hands are full anyway," he smirked. When she didn't react, he recited, "Ino Yamanaka, 305 Mountainview Street. Hinata Hyuuga, 495 Woodside Avenue. TenTen…"

How could he have memorized all that? He knew.

He knew enough to hurt them.

Could she break the phone? Was that an option?

"I have all the information from your phone copied into this shit's system already. Don't even try getting rid of your phone," Hidan said, as though he read the thought right out of her mind.

She hesitated, trying to think of alternative plans. _There had to be another way…_

If Naruto or Sasuke was in her place, they'd be trying to think way around this all.

Hidan was interrupted again by another one of his associates, and a long haired blond man stepped into the room, "Found another one, un."

"A jinchuuriki?" and when the blond gave a nod, Hidan seemed impressed. "That's a shitload of nine so far."

A jinchuuriki? What was that, a code word for something?

"What's its status?"

"One armed person, not sure if it's actually protected or not."

"Alright, we'll assemble a team," and Hidan turned to face Sakura, "after we figure out Uchiha's location." His eyes locked onto hers. "So cooperate, Haruno?"

She didn't answer them. "What's a jinchuuriki?"

"None of your business, un," and the blond left the room.

"Then I'm not making the call," Sakura said when Hidan turned his attention back fully to her.

"Then I'm not sparing your friends," he replied, and this time, she saw a bit more than impatience in his eyes.

Sakura hesitated for a good ten minutes, and then mustered up the courage to press the call button.

Nothing good was going to come out of this. But nothing better was going to come out of her not doing anything either. The lesser of two evils.

The phone rings when she called Sasuke were long, because Sakura had always been waiting for him to pick up. But these were the longest she had ever heard them; they droned on forever, until finally:

"Hey it's Sasuke. Leave a message."

She had heard this many many times before. Normally she'd feel anxious and worried, but not hearing his real voice suddenly turned into a bit of relief. Now, just this one time, thank god he hadn't picked up the phone.

She looked up at Hidan, who had a small smile that told her that she should leave a message.

"Hey Sasuke," her voice started shakily. "I…I was just wondering if you were alright."

And then she hung up.

"Alright," Hidan said, clearly satisfied. "We're done." He swiped her phone away from her, standing up and then retying her hands, placing a muffling fabric around her mouth to cover her jaw.

"I thought we were done," she said.

"We are." And then he left the room. "We have to keep you in case he calls back, so you can take his fucking call," Hidan added, winking at her before leaving the room, shouting out, "Kisame! Location is on the map for you!"

The door shut and she was again alone in a bright white room, forced to stare down her thighs, which were useless because her ankles were held at the chair legs. It felt horrible, and she couldn't do anything about it.

In fact, she couldn't even run.

"Oh wow, the location's actually pretty close to the jinchuuriki," she overheard through the walls of her room. Sakura still had no clue who the hell these Akatsuki people were, and why they wanted Sasuke—who she didn't want to think about right now since he had apparently been responsible for a great many crimes—and she only had a small understanding of why she was now strapped to a chair.

She had Sasuke's number.

And she was probably the only one that had his number and she was easy to abduct.

"Konan, Zetsu, and I will be remaining here to take care of the hostage, then," another sentence slipped through the wall.

All these times she never had imagined that she would end up in one of these situations. It was—

An alarm shrieked.

"A breech?!" she heard someone yell outside, and then the walls of the room shook with slamming doors and whatever other contraptions they had set up around their place.

The main lights flickered off and only a few trinkles of lights were left for her to see with. There were no windows.

Sakura couldn't help but yell, but it was muffled. She tried to stand up or at least jump over to the door, but ended up tipping herself over. A cry of pain escaped her when she landed on the side against her right bicep.

"Mmmpfh!" she screamed when feeling something grab onto her left ankle. She jerked her body away, and then suddenly felt her body move right side up again. The fabric around her mouth was pulled off and her eyes snapped ahead of her, to face the right direction, seeing an all-too familiar face.

"Sasuke?!"

* * *

**Muahaha...**

**thir13enth**


	7. a leap of faith

**Hello all! I've acquired some time and I have another installment for you! Just for your information, **_**jinchuuriki**_** in this story is not going to be the normal definition as we know it in Naruverse. It's a code word for something else…which will be revealed later! Muaha! **

**I hope you enjoy this update!**

* * *

**Chapter Seven:**

**a leap of faith**

* * *

"Sh!" he demanded, placing two fingers over her lips.

"Sasuke, they're looking for you!" she exclaimed, while moving her head down so as to get his hand off her mouth. She felt him reach to the back of her chair to remove the ties around her hands. Her heart was beating wildly and she couldn't get herself to think straight. _Sasuke…Sasuke is here?!_

"Sasuke!"

"Sh!" he warned again. Then with a cut to the ropes surrounding her hands and a tug to release them, he added, "And I prefer not to be confused with him."

_Huh? _

And she took a second look.

"Sai?! What the fuck are you doing here!" she blurted as softly as she could in her surprise. "How did you find me? What—"

His hand clapped on her mouth and at the same time, she heard a footstep at the door. Then a soft click that was sounded all too much like a gun.

"Sakura," Sai commanded. "Open the door."

"What—"

"Just open the door."

"But—"

"Just do it." And his dark figure slinked away into the shadows of the room behind her.

She walked blindly through the dark room, squinting to figure out where she was. She swung her arms out in front of her, finally finding the doorknob and swinging it wide open.

Someone was expecting her on the other side.

"Had you been planning to get away?" teased a red-headed guy, and he ominously took a step closer to Sakura, who backed further and further. She gasped, her back hitting a wall. He laughed, "Don't get ahead of your—"

One shot rippled the air. One body fell to the ground.

Sakura dropped to the ground, one hand over her mouth, shaken. She stared wide-eyed at the splash of blood in the hallway's wall, a stripe of scarlet trailing downwards and to stilled body. She was frozen but Sai dragged Sakura up by the hand and motioned for her to follow him.

But what else did she have to do but do as he said? She didn't even have the time to think over the scared chatter in her brain. She was still shocked from the sudden death in front of her.

God, Sai was so swift; he made a dragonfly seem like a clutz—and why the hell did he have a gun anyway?

_In fact, a few guns_, she realized when she noticed the two gun holsters at the back of his waist, as well as a glint of what could only be a small knife tucked up at his shin.

Sai…who the hell was he?

She almost bumped into him; he had stopped so suddenly at the end of the hall. He silently neared the corner, crouching, and readied his hand on the trigger of the gun and poked his head out and around. Sakura slowly inched towards him, leaning against the wall, not wanting to fall behind Sai's movements. However, Sai suddenly got up, and thinking he was going to move forward, Sakura propelled herself in that direction, but Sai went in the opposite direction that she was expecting. She gasped as he prevented himself from crashing with her, swaying aside his body at the last moment and catching Sakura before she fell in her momentum.

He pushed her back to the wall and then pulled the trigger to his gun.

She didn't hear the crumpled fall of a body until a few seconds later.

He was a sharpshooter. That definitely wasn't an art skill.

Some painter he was.

She had no idea what the hell Sai was. A day before yesterday, she wouldn't have even guessed all this was about to happen to her. Her mind was still in a daze trying to process all the events that were going on; she could barely think for herself.

This annoyed Sai later when he silently scolded her for not paying attention and for falling behind.

"Come on, we have to get out of here before they find the bodies," he explained quickly, hoping that would motivate her to move faster.

Sakura took the opportunity to speak up, catching her breath before she could lose it running again. "Sai. What _are _you?"

Sai actually stopped in his run to meet her eyes, quickly tucking a gun under his arm and fumbling with one of his back pockets. "Look this wasn't the most ideal time to tell you, but…" and he flashed an ANBU badge at her.

"You're a—?!"

"Shh," he warned her, putting a finger to her lips. "It's not that surprising."

"I—"

But Sai was already cutting across the hallway ahead of them.

He reached an air vent, whipping out the knife at the back of his calf and unhinging the cover of the vent. He looked back at her and motioned urgently for her to come closer.

She did, and then suddenly felt herself being hoisted up into the air vent.

"Sai—!"

"Just pull yourself up," he harshly whispered. "And don't make a sound when you get up there. Every noise up there will be reflected through the entire building."

Sakura pulled her arms over her head, into the dusty air vent and attempted to pull herself into the vent, which was actually quite dark and stuffy. Normally, she would have never done this…

She felt Sai push up her feet to give her a quick extra boost and she fell into a crouch inside the vent.

God it was so cramped and small up in here…

A wave of wind behind her told her that Sai had gotten up into the vent as well. A tweak of metal indicated he had replaced the cover and that they were ready to move on.

Something placed itself on her ass. She half gasped, but held it back in order to not make a sound.

But her ass was patted twice and then pushed.

It was already hot in the air vent, but her face flushed even more when she realized this was Sai. She wanted to swivel back around and yell at him, but remembered the tight environment they were in.

_I can't blame him…my butt's practically in his face, _she reasoned, moving forward as quickly as she could on all fours.

After toiling for what seemed like hours of moving through the air vent without making a sound, her skin was damp with sweat and her breathing grew more and more pronounced with exhaustion. The air was so dusty in here, she was half tempted to cough, but she held it in, her body tightening all over.

Later after passing a few openings of the air vent, they eventually got to the exhaust of the air system that led directly out of the building. The vent was beginning to grow wider, and eventually their two bodies could fit side by side. They reached the end of the vent, the only thing obstructing them from the outside a wire grid. Sai pushed the right side of her hip back and maneuvered in front of her, producing yet another small blade from his forearm and cutting an opening in the mesh.

He grabbed the wire and pulled it aside, coaxing Sakura to come to his side. She stayed on all fours, hesitantly and looked down.

The ground was several meters down from where they were. Sakura braced herself, knowing what was coming next. Without a blink of an eye, Sai jumped right out. He landed smoothly and recovered within a split second, looking back up at her. He waved her down.

She looked again at how far down she'd be landing—

_Now isn't the time to be scared! _She told this to herself and closed her eyes before vaulting herself forward, ready to feel impact.

She was surprised that she felt nothing but her stomach in her heart and the wind blowing her hair off her face. When her eyes finally opened on their own accord, she saw herself having been caught in Sai's arms. "Thank you," she breathed out, but he had already broken into a run away from the building, setting her foot back down to the dirt and gripping her wrist in his hand.

"Shit," Sai cursed, however, a few steps into their escape.

"Don't move or I'll shoot," declared the man standing in front of them. "Both of you."

Sakura couldn't believe her eyes—a man with a striking resemblance to _Sasuke_.

Was it Sasuke himself? But he couldn't have possibly changed that much!

And he was pointing a gun at—

"Listen," the man said and she realized that his voice was not the one she remembered of her long lost companion. "I'm not holding this gun to kill you. But I'm not going to let you guys go unless you guys have to promise me one thing."

"What?" Sai asked, eyebrows furrowed, hand resting on one of his guns behind his back.

"Get out of here, and don't come back."

Sakura couldn't have been more surprised. This man was in the same Akatsuki uniform as that white-haired bastard that had just been torturing her. Didn't this organization need Sakura to get a hold of Sasuke? Why in hell's name was this man—_who looked_ _so much like Sasuke_—letting them escape?

"Go!" yelled the man urgently, and Sai quickly led Sakura over to his car, which had been parked well out of sight.

_That same car…was once on the driveway of my neighborhood_, Sakura realized, still trying to sort out all the facts in her life that had immediately been toppled over the past twenty four hours.

Sasuke, a criminal. Sai, an ANBU agent. She, actually _important_ to some organization.

She didn't think she could look at anything the same way ever again.

Sai stepped on the gas pedal and accelerated out of the vicinity. Sakura took a quick look at his car, and though she had been in it before, was seeing it in a whole new light. The extra generic exterior look of it, but no company logo, and the few extra dials…

She checked out his uniform as well; Sai donned a tight fitting lightly padded—most likely bulletproof—shirt and black pants that had a great number of pockets on it, and a heavy load of weapons.

Never would she have expected him to be this kind of a person in life, completely aside his artistic façade.

"So," she said, gathering her thoughts after a while. "Now that I know you better, can you tell me…about Sasuke…and everything?

Sai looked up and fixed the rear-facing mirror so he could get a better look in the further distance for anyone following them. Sakura turned her body to at least participate in the scan.

"You were with the Akatsuki," Sai began, "which is an international mafia aiming to monopolize energy sources in order to become the sole provider of resources." When he found that she was unsatisfied in that answer alone, he continued, "The Akatsuki were probably interested in Sasuke Uchiha because he's on their hit list."

Sakura was surprised that she wasn't reacting more heavily to the information that had just been provided to her. "Wait, so has Sasuke actually…committed those crimes? If the Akatsuki are against him…then is he part of the ANBU?"

"Far from it," Sai replied, and Sakura braced herself. "He's in another crime organization, run by a man known as Orochimaru, who used to be a member of the Akatsuki. Apparently, Orochimaru had been forced out of the Akatsuki because he had been utilizing their money to provide funding for his own personal things—they say he was working in a lab and conducting some underground experimentation. So Orochimaru works against the Akatsuki, which means Sasuke works against the Akatsuki, as well."

Sakura processed for a moment. "So it's like a triangular hate between the ANBU, the Akatsuki, and Orochimaru?"

"Pretty much."

"So why didn't that guy shoot us?"

"I don't know. By the looks of it, he might be related to Sasuke Uchiha."

She turned to him. "You know what Sasuke looks like?!"

"Ah right," Sai sighed, remembering that he didn't complete his explanation. "Actually, I've been assigned to capture Sasuke Uchiha—_dead or alive_."

Here, her mouth dropped.

"I'm part of a division of ANBU called _Root_. Our goal is to wipe out Orochimaru and eventually the Akatsuki." Sai waited for her to look up at him before he continued. "That's why it was interesting to have run into you, since you happened to know my target really closely."

She said nothing, eyes back on the road ahead of them, her hands fisting the fabric over her thighs.

"In any case, if that Akatsuki member is truly a relative of Sasuke Uchiha, then we've found a weak spot in the Akatsuki. He probably didn't shoot because he knew you were one of Sasuke's friends. And that in itself is pretty interesting…since that implies I can probably bribe the Akatsuki with Uchiha's life or something."

Sakura wasn't sure how to respond to that. After all, life-death bribes didn't usually make their way into casual conversations. "Sasuke has an older brother…" she said, almost wistfully.

_Hey Sak…What would you do if you found out you had a brother you never knew about?_

Sakura shook her memories out of her head, recalling something else. She made her question quick: "What's a_ jinchuuriki_?"

"That's their code word for a mine with an element called _sierram_. If you want to pull out my laptop to check it out, you can search an information file on it," he answered, all the while pressing down hard on the gas pedal and increasing his driving speed.

She reached behind to fetch his laptop from the rear seat, and he swiped his finger over the fingerprint scanner before she even asked. Sure enough, there was a rather long article on this element called _sierram_.

_High energy mineral, _she quickly skimmed. _Found in underground mines throughout the planet…extremely resourceful and desired..._

_So that's the issue that the blond guy who interrupted my interrogator had, _Sakura thought, recollecting bits and pieces from that dialogue. _And apparently ,according to that guy…they had located nine mines already? _

And then, as she read more about sierram, something else clicked.

_They're fluorescent green. All over the place… They reminded me of you… They're kinda like your eyes when you're smiling._

"Sai!" she exclaimed, her panic rising. "We have to go back!" Urging him, she put her hand on his shoulder and looked backwards toward the Akatsuki hideout.

Unsure of why she was asking him to do this, he looked briefly in the rearview mirror. "Why?" he harshly asked, finding no immediate threat. "What's wrong?"

"It's Naruto! Naruto's in the jinchuuriki! And they're about to attack it!"

"Wait, what? Who?"

"Naruto! He's one of my friends!" And then upon realizing that Sai wouldn't have reason to save someone that he didn't know, she begged, "Please! I know that he's in a sierram mine!"

"Your Army guy? How'd he get in one of those?"

"I-I don't know, but Naruto…he was the one that called me while we were…out for dinner and…" she trailed off. "Naruto told me that he was in some cave with these green lights and it matches the sierram description. And I overheard the Akatsuki talking about another jinchuuriki they located and there's one armed person inside it—and I think that's Naruto!"

Sai gritted his teeth, his foot not moving from the pedal.

"Please! They're going to find him and…they might kill him or something!" she exclaimed, gripping Sai's arm tightly. "Please!" She felt a burning at the back of her eyes, some hot liquid running down her cheek.

"What are you going to do once we get back to their hideout?" the ANBU agent asked calmly.

Her tears stopped. "I…I don't know! I just have to do _something_!" she explained. "I just—"

"I'm sorry," Sai replied. "I just can't…I can call other agents in for back up and they can take care of this. I can't do this myself."

"But we can't waste time!" she argued. She knew her begging was hopeless, but…

"I'm not assigned to attack the Akatsuki anyway. It's too early in the game to do that. I'll mess up the plans that the Root has! In fact, I was disobeying my fucking orders just getting you out of the Akatsuki's hands!"

"Then you might as well keep disobeying!" she yelled back, swiping away the tears from her cheeks. "Please! I have to go back! I can't just leave him when I know he's in trouble!" She took a second to breathe, see if Sai was considering her request at all. "I-I can't lose him! He's all I have left! At the very least, they know where Naruto is! And we don't have to save him ourselves—I can go tell the Marines Naruto's location!"

"Sakura," Sai said, sympathetic. "I'm sorry. I can't go back, but I swear…I _swear _on my life that Naruto will be rescued."

"Then turn the fucking car around!"

He said nothing, keeping his eyes on the road ahead of them. Sakura snarled, frustrated, and let go of Sai's arm, returning to the passenger side of the car. Her left hand released her seat belt while her right hand felt around for the door handle on her side.

If he wasn't going to turn around, then she was going to get out of the damn car and run back there herself! She wasn't just going to let Naruto go like that when she was in the position to be able to do something about it!

Sai noticed her struggling to get out of his car and he quickly flipped a switch to lock down the doors of the car, however Sakura had already opened the door by then, the wind from their high speed whipping into the vehicle.

"Sakura!" he exclaimed, reaching his hand over to her wrist. "Get back in here! You—"

Sakura shook her wrist free from him, pulling away and opening the car door even further, slipping off her seat even more. She knew that she wouldn't survive jumping out of the car now at this speed, but she also knew that Sai wasn't in a position to let her die either, and eventually have to slow down.

She predicted correctly and the car was soon rolling at a speed which she thought she could handle. She braced herself and took a deep breath.

"Sakura! Don't! It's dangerous—"

"I don't care!" she screamed back at him. "I can't lose him!" And she turned back to the open car door, feeling the wind whip her hair at her face.

_I was always just worrying, just sitting by and worrying. I was never doing anything, and I was always complaining. I'm not going to do that this time! I can't! No one's going to be there to save him—it's up to me! _she declared in her mind, before closing her eyes and taking a final breath before—

A spray of bullets hit the car door. She lost her balance, frightened by the sudden assault.

She felt a strong hand grip the back of her shirt, pulling her back into the car. She fell backwards, her back hitting the shift, her head falling onto Sai's torso, and her hands slapping the steering wheel. Sakura recovered, sitting up and looking behind their car.

A couple of cars were on their tail, guns pointing out of the windows. She ducked down into the passenger seat again, breathing jagged in fear.

Shit, it was just one thing after the other!

Sakura reached for the still open car door on her side and slammed it securely shut.

"I told you it was too dangerous," Sai said, indifferently despite the new situation they were in. "Just stay low, okay?"

She hid her face in her hands. The one time she tried to do something, she failed.

She couldn't even find the heart to shed tears. Nor was she able to keep up with what was going on—how could Sai remain so calm and collected when a mafia group was shooting bullets through his car?!

The car jerked as Sai pressed down harder on the acceleration pedal. Once she gained the courage to open her eyes again, she stared wide-eyed at the road in front of them.

"S-Sai! You're about to drive off a cliff!"

"I know," he said stiffly.

"A _cliff_, Sai! A cliff! You have to turn! You have to slow down!" She turned to face him, trying to knock some sense into him. "Sai!"

"Sakura."

Her eyebrows furrowed, her muscles tense. "Do I have to take the wheel myself?!" She reached over but then yet another round of shots hit the back windshield of the car, and she ducked back down into her seat.

He turned to face her. "Do you trust me?"

She couldn't find her voice.

"Then just hang on. It'll be okay."

She nodded, gripping her seat tightly, watching their impending fall…

And their car crashed clean through the guardrail, flipping off the gorge.

* * *

**Lol, I hope I didn't just drop a whole ton of information on your heads! As a recap, Sai is part of the **_**Root **_**group in the **_**ANBU**_**, which is like the FBI in this story. His target is Sasuke Uchiha, who works for **_**Orochimaru**_**, and happens to also be a target for the **_**Akatsuki**_** as well. Akatsuki is a mafia-like criminal organization which Orochimaru was kicked out of. The Akatsuki's goals are to monopolize energy resources by gaining ownership of the various energy hot spots, and in particular they're interested in a compound called **_**sierram**_**, the mines of which they codename as **_**jinchuurikis**_**. Hope that had made sense during the story itself!**

**Anyway, sorry for not having updated in a while and you'll probably hear from me next much later; I got some stuff to do, including eating a bar of chocolate. :P**

**Now review please! Otherwise I'll send Sai after **_**you **_**too! Happy holidays all! Eat much and sleep well!**

**thir13enth**


	8. guns at hand

**So it's been a while. I guess it might just be too late to apologize...but here's the update!**

**And thank you thank you thank you readers! This story is so much more read than I ever hoped it would be! You guys are the best!**

* * *

**Chapter Eight:**

**guns at hand**

* * *

Their car went flying off the cliff, spiraling once or twice in the air, before splashing and sinking down into the depths of the ocean several hundred feet below.

Nothing about hanging off a cliff was comfortable, but she knew better than to give out and let go. Just a for a second, she dared herself to look down, between her raised arms—and found that was the worst idea she had had in ages—the sand and dirt many many meters below them, the sharp-looking rocks glistening on the beach, the scratchy twigs and branches of the bushes and mossy plants that decorated the edge of the sea, and the occasional crashing waves of the ocean…

She felt nauseous and immediately closed her eyes, feeling even more sweat build up at her hands. She panicked, feeling herself slipping millimeter by millimeter down Sai's hands.

_Keep yourself together, Sakura. Just keep yourself together… _she tried to soothe herself, regulating her own breathing. _But what the hell had just happened?! _

The last thing she had seen was the guardrail hitting the front of the car, her body being lifted in the sudden crash, moving up and out of the car roof—which she had passed through without injury apparently—in the momentum, and then seeing the drop down the cliff and screaming her head off before Sai had suddenly caught one of her hands.

"I can't hang on much longer!" she exclaimed, feeling her fingers slowly slipping from his grasp.

"Just a bit more! Keep quiet for now!" Sai hissed back.

She made one last effort to pull herself up once more and looked back up at Sai, who was single-handedly gripping the edge of an overhanging rock slightly out of sight from the top of the cliff that they had just driven straight through. He smiled back down at her before turning his head back to the sky once again. With two hands clasping his wrist, she was surprised that his hand wasn't popping out of its socket, since her own knuckles were coming out of their joints.

Sakura overheard some talking just above them. Relieved that there was something else to focus on outside of hanging on for her dear life, she tried to make out the dialogue.

"They fell off, un."

"Who the hell was that?"

"That bastard that got away. And he took our chick with him too."

"What was he? Like ANBU or something?"

"Well it's too late to know now, un."

"Pein's not going to like that we let him get away."

"I'm sure he can work something out—it's not like this completely ruins our plans. We got all the information we wanted from that girl anyway."

_God, just leave already! _Sakura thought angrily. Her arms were so tense and she could no longer really feel what was at the ends of her fingertips. She didn't even know if she was slipping out of Sai's grasp or not. A small whimper escaped from her lips, and she mentally cursed, cold sweat running down her back, hoping that no one had heard the noise.

She looked up at Sai. He was struggling to hang himself—she could see him forcing himself to breathe evenly, and his eyes were closed, probably in deep concentration.

She wasn't going to let his effort go to waste, and she wasn't going to put them—_him, _rather—in any more danger because of her.

_He saved me, _she suddenly realized. She scolded herself for not having realized it earlier.

"Alright, let's go check out the car down there—he's gotta be ANBU or something; no sane person would just drive right off a cliff. Probably has a back-up plan and is swimming to shore or something."

"Yeah, un."

A couple gun shots sounded. Sakura had just as many heart attacks.

"We're going to get you, you bastard!"

Sakura bit her lip. When were they going to leave?! They should just leave! They had said they were going to be leaving! Almost there! Almost there!

She was practically ecstatic upon hearing some car motors driving off. She didn't dare say a word though, waiting for Sai's signal.

Finally Sai exhaled sharply and looked down at her. Beads of sweat were trailing down the sides of his face. "Sakura," he said.

"Yes!" she immediately replied.

"I'm going to throw you up to the top. You're going to let go of my hand once I say so. I should be able to get you all the way but just promise me that if I miss, that you'll at least try to hang onto whatever you grab hold of—guardrail, grass, some random twig off the side, whatever."

Throw?! Her eyes widened. "Wha—"

And he swung her back and forth once or twice before she could say another word.

"Let go!"

She screamed, closing her eyes and bringing her hands in. In the middle of her upward ascent, she suddenly reminded herself that she had to make sure she actually got to safe ground and opened her eyes—just in time to fling her arms out in front of her so that she could land properly on all fours on the cement of the road.

Never again. She was never going to do this _ever _again.

She clutched her heart, beginning to laugh and cry in relief and rolling back onto her back. "Oh my god…"

Sai's landing right next to her a couple of seconds later reminded her that they were still in danger. She immediately got up, shaking dirt and small rocks off her. She saw Sai shaking out his arms.

Sakura couldn't help but let out a single laugh. "I didn't know that painting involved _this_."

_It was no wonder he has all those muscles, _she thought, recalling that one time she had let herself into his house and accidentally caught him…shirtless. _Oh geez, now is _not _the time to think about his body, _she scolded herself.

The agent just chuckled, sweeping his black hair off his forehead. "I actually do paint though. With all honesty."

Actually, him being an ANBU agent just explained everything: his overly-generic looking car, all those little details that he remembered, why he had those guns, why he moved around constantly—everything! She was surprised that she hadn't been able to add everything all together; the fact that he wasn't what he seemed should have been self-evident from the very start!

She had probably been too obsessed with her own personal problems to really know. Her lip scrunched at this realization.

"Are you okay?" he asked, taking her arms in his hands to point out the gash on her arms. "_Shimatta_—did I do this?"

The pinkette looked down at the dry and clotting blood on her left arm, just remembering that she had been bleeding. "No, I…" she explained, fading. "They…"

"Bastards," he muttered under his breath, knowing what was on her tongue. He reached down to his right pant leg and unhooked a piece of excess fabric from his pant leg. He brought the cloth to his tongue and used the small amount of moisture to clean off the scarlet from around her wound before wrapping a temporary bandage around her left arm.

He had done this all with so much expertise, it embarrassed her. After all, _she _was a medical resident and she could probably barely wrap a tourniquet as well as he could! She didn't know where to put her eyes as he tied the knot of the bandage, instead opting to observe all the equipment that he was wearing on person.

Unlike the simple t-shirt and jeans she was used to seeing him wear all the time, he had on a sturdy looking black bodysuit that looked like it had hidden blades installed on its forearms. Over the high collared and tight fitting bodysuit was a chest protector strapped over his shoulders. His belt, though simple, had several chains, climbing hooks, and other metal appendages attached to it. And as if that wasn't enough, his pants were chockfull of pockets and straps, not to mention the two extra handguns he tucked in his pants behind his back. She was practically positive that his shoes probably had extra knives tucked in underneath their shoes too, without even looking at them.

She heard him sigh once he finished the wound care. He paused for a moment and then placed a hand on her shoulder, onyx eyes looking directly into her own.

"Are you okay?"

And this time he wasn't talking about any wounds that she might have had. Her emerald eyes stared straight into his eyes, but she couldn't hold his gaze for long because of her shame.

"It's my fault," she said. "I should have listened to Sasuke and deleted his number. I was too hung up on him. If I had just done that instead of—"

"It's not your fault," he corrected. "Nothing…_nothing_ is your fault, okay?"

"You wouldn't be in this mess though," she admitted. "And—"

Sai shook his head. "You were the victim," he said, getting up to his feet. He reached a hand out to her to help her up.

_You're so weak, _she told herself. She hesitated a moment before leaning back on her own hands to pick herself up. She looked back up at him. "Thank you...for saving me."

She wasn't sure what happened next because her eyes trailed back down to the ground. He didn't say anything however, and unsure of what to do next, she stepped forward and embraced him. He took the hug awkwardly, just standing there, just like the last time she had hugged him.

Sakura continued to hold him against for the next several seconds, face at the hard armor over his torso. He patted her twice on the back.

He didn't really like her, did he? _I mean, he came all this way to save me and all…and he—why the hell am I thinking about this trivial stuff? Naruto. You have to save Naruto._

She pushed herself off him and blinked the pre-forming tears out of her system. "So what now?"

**muchlater**

She had never thought she'd have to crouch back in that air vent ever again

_Yet here I am again, with my ass up in Sai's face, _she thought with a mental sigh, crawling as silently as she could through the vent at a snail's pace on her elbows and knees. Every time she passed by an opening in the vent, she took a deep gasp of the cool fresh air outside of the ventilation system before holding in her breath, hoping that no one was around to notice bodies moving through the air tunnels.

She saw light filtering in through an upcoming opening and focused on the approaching the light, ignoring the itchiness all over her body, as well as her intense desire to sneeze.

"So fucking ass killed Sasori and shot me!" a voice snarled.

She froze—she was in the air vent above a room that someone was in! Taking a couple gulps of air, she pressed forward, traveling even more silently than she already had been.

It was the voice she remembered. Her interrogator!

_You were just shot? _she thought angrily. _You should have been the one _killed_, you bastard._

"The government's catching onto us," another voice said. "We have to rush operations…get some more arsenal…find another place."

"Had the girl been under protective custody or something?" a calm melodious female voice asked.

"No, the bitch was just supposed to go missing without anyone knowing. She's not connected at all to the damn government," Hidan's voice replied. "I wasn't expecting someone to come in and help her escape! I mean, fuck, she was just a good-for-nothing civilian that just happened to know Uchiha from her childhood."

Sakura found it very hard to not just borrow one of Sai's guns and shoot the foul-mouthed man herself.

"Shut up, Hidan," a lower toned voice said. "You talk too much and you're always so reckless."

"_Teme_, you didn't even volunteer to help me retrieve her!"

"Regardless, you—"

A small clack sounded just above their Akatsuki heads. Sakura cursed two hundred times, freezing and withdrawing her hand from the metal surrounding her.

Out of all the times in the world that she kept her nails clipped short, just this _one _week where she had treated herself to a manicure she just had to crawl through a tiny space without clacking her fingernails on the metal surface she was trailing over!

Her breath caught in her lungs and she came to a standstill. She closed her eyes, praying. _Oh please, please just continue with your conversation like nothing happened. I didn't make that much noise, did I?!_

A couple of clicks from a gun's safety and then the bang of bullets piercing several times through the ceiling up through the air vent, each shot coming closer and closer to her.

She banged her head on the top of the vent, trying to reel backwards from the bullets. So hard that the tears dropped right out of her eyelids. She immediately covered her mouth to keep her from screaming or crying out. She felt a warm reassuring squeeze on her ankle.

"You're so trigger-happy, Zetsu. Now I have to spend money to fix the ceiling."

"Mice again," a croaky voice replied.

"Don't bother fixing the damn ceiling, Kakazu—we're moving out of this shithole anyway, right Pein?" suggested Hidan.

Oh thank god for vermin and other buggers. She still heard her heart in her ears and her breathing was still severely broken and uneven, but at least she knew now that she was relatively safe and that they hadn't expected anything larger than rodents in their air vents.

Another squeeze on her ankle from Sai reminded her that she had to keep going, and it took her a couple terrifying minutes for her to build the confidence to move on.

**aftertheagonizingslowcrawl**

They dropped down into a room, Sakura falling to her knees and Sai at once ducking under a table with a gun in his hands to check their immediate surroundings. The area was clear and the two of them took a quick look around.

Chances were they had hit the right room on the first try. There were a couple laptops scattered around desks as well as a rather large map projected onto the wall, which automatically updated itself every couple of seconds—colored dots and numbers moving all across the screen. To the side, several small black and white TV screens displayed the surveillance around the entire building.

She was a little alarmed to see nobody on any of the camera views.

"Here."

When she looked down, she found a gun in her hands. "What—"

"Hold onto it just in case," Sai explained. "I'm going to have a look around." He walked off but then turned back to her, reassuring her, "I have an extra couple guns, don't worry. It's just in case."

Sakura swallowed, nodding. It wasn't time to freak out, she told herself. And besides, it wasn't the first time that she had ever held a gun before; she had actually shot with a .22 rifle and shotgun before, even if that didn't entail shooting actual living beings. She cradled the weapon in her right hand, uncertain of whether she wanted to keep her finger over the trigger and risk misfiring, or whether she wanted to keep her finger on the guard and risk a bit of time delay in her shot.

Deciding to test it out for a feel, she rose the barrel to the door of the room, surprised at how amazingly light the semi-automatic was. For some reason, she had always believed it to be heavy and metal all the way straight through. She was tempted to just shoot it for kicks, suddenly empowered by the handgun's presence.

"Don't get too carried away," warned Sai, a grin on his face. "Say cheese."

"Wha…why are you taking pictures?!" She lowered the gun and hid it behind her back bashfully, watching him click rapidly around the room with a thin silver rectangular canister that barely looked like anything but a skinny brick of metal.

"I hit a jackpot of information—what else am I going to do but take what I can while I'm here?" he explained briefly, replacing the camera gadget with yet another rectangular piece of metal. He fumbled around with it for a second before talking into it. "This is 305. I found the Akatsuki base and hit a motherload of intel. I'll need a bird and some back-up at my location as soon as possible."

And she had thought all those movies about spies and agents were completely falsified.

A high feminine voice got back within the next second. "Sai?! What the hell are you doing in Akatsuki—"

"_Ja ne_," he interrupted, clicking the walkie-talkie like object off. "So…what sort of interesting tidbits do you remember the Akatsuki mentioning while you were here?" he asked Sakura, replacing the device back into his pocket.

"Uh," she answered, stopping to think. "They had located a jinchuuriki and they were really excited about it since it was close to where they had located Sasuke—"

"Close to Sasuke?"

Sakura hesitated.

He nodded, understanding. "I know it's hard…to turn him in but—"

"I'm fine," she declared sternly. "I just never realized who he actually was."

"Thank you, Sakura." Sai glanced at the map projection on the wall before returning to her. "My mission is getting even more interesting; I didn't know the Akatsuki were looking for him as well. He must have some history with them as well. He's a well-wanted man."

She didn't accept his thanks. "We're getting Naruto first, right?"

"Of course. I've already downloaded the information stored on this map and we should be able to figure out what everything means based on our previous intel. We'll get to Naruto in no time."

She nodded, taking a deep breath. She turned back around to watch the door, reminding herself that they were not necessarily in safe territory and that she still had a gun in her hands.

What the hell was she doing? It wasn't like she was saved by an ANBU agent and then taken home to continue normal life. She had actually _wanted _to come back and save Naruto…and now she was helping Sai—who was just her _next door neighbor _a couple days ago—on his assassination or capture or whatever mission, the target being Sasuke—the very man who she had known since elementary school.

Sasuke…

_It's better that you're caught by the law than by the mafia, _she reasoned.

Did this mean that she was now helping Sai, now helping the ANBU? And he was going to go help her save Naruto, or rather, he was saving Naruto for her sake. How much longer was she going to be tagging alongside Sai? Was she…essentially his sidekick now?

Sakura swiped that thought from her mind, focusing back to the present. She couldn't afford to be thinking about those sorts of things right now.

Her eyes strayed over to a familiar looking object on the table. Her cell phone!

She quickly pocketed it, before a loud alarm rang out.

"Infiltration attempt detected," announced the computer loudly.

"_Shimatta,_" Sai cursed, withdrawing a USB-port from one of the laptops that he was tampering with. "I should've known they'd protect their information directly. Let's get out of here." He caught her by the waist, dragging her quickly back to the air vent opening hoisting her up.

Sai whipped the last of his foot into the vent and replaced the cover just as a couple Akatsuki members stormed into the room.

"This time, I'm sure there are things in the vent," said that croaky voice.

"Just go!" Sai harshly whispered, pushing her forward. "They already know!"

"Zetsu," another voice commanded. "Eliminate _all _the rats."

"Oh my god, oh my god!" she panicked, hearing bullets being fired. She desperately tried to move as quickly as possible, her knees and palms and the gun in her right hand thumping the insides of the air vents. She heard the shot of bullets echoing through the air vent, sweating profusely, her vision going red in adrenaline and fear.

One of the bullets sounded like they came up right behind her foot. She gasped but couldn't turn around.

"Shit," she heard Sai curse.

"Are you okay?!"

"Just keep going! Don't worry about me!"

Bullets kept shooting through, and Sakura found herself freezing up each time she heard a bang. Eventually Sai was pushing her completely, sliding her further and further down the air vent, until they reached a point where the air seemed to be sucking upwards.

"Okay, climb—I'm going to help you," he commanded.

Blindly, she flung her hands upwards and found a tunnel of the air vent going upwards. Looking upwards, she saw a circular opening to what could only be the roof of the building. Fan blades were cycling around the opening. "Wait," she protested. "It's block—"

"Just go!"

The bullets kept sounding through the vent, but she could tell that they were no longer in danger of them, hearing scrambled voices from the Akatsuki.

"Sai—there's a fan in the way!"

"Just…punch through it! Can you do it?"

She looked back up, gauging the obstruction. She _had _to do this. This was to get out of here and be safe—she couldn't just chicken out of this and stay in this vent forever! And she had to somehow pay back Sai for saving her from this mess…not to mention accept her plea to save Naruto as well; the very least that she could have done was help him escape!

And it wasn't going to be that bad was it? Just punch _really _hard and then everything will be okay, don't think about the fan blades going at high speeds, don't think about the fact that the last time she had thrown a punch was when she had taken some joke taekwondo class in the fourth grade, don't think about the fact that she might just not really get through the entire thing and get hurt…

She let out a martial-art worthy yell, aiming straight for the middle of the fan. When she retracted her fist, she was surprised to find some pieces of plastic and dust falling back down on her head.

"Oh my god—I did it!" she exclaimed, blinking away the debris from her eyes and seeing the small break in the obstruction, and the fan blades broken and stopped. She went forward with another punch and whack with her gun, a bit more confident in her strength this time around, and cleared away enough for her to be able squeeze past.

Sakura gasped onto the rooftop—thank god it was flat and level. "Okay, now what?"

Sai followed right after her, looking around quickly. "She's late," he said. "We're just going to be hanging on for a bit longer."

"You mean someone's going to come to get us?" Sakura asked, some relief entering her adrenaline-stressed heart.

Sai wasn't able to answer—an Akatsuki member burst out of a stairway door, joining them on the roof. She recalled this member; that Akatsuki had been the one that interrupted her interrogation. He had long blond hair tied back into a ponytail and a pistol in both his hands.

"You!" exclaimed the Akatsuki member, when he saw Sakura, who was pathetically trying to position her gun back into her right hand to point upwards to shoot.

By the time she had done this, the Akatsuki had shot a couple times at her. She screamed, running behind the closest thing solid obstruction she could find and accidentally shooting a bullet at the roof once she deemed herself safe. She screamed again, tiptoeing on her feet to get away from her own misfire.

Sakura attempted to slow her breathing, counting quickly to ten twice. Geez, she was never going to get used to this; what had she been thinking when she thought herself as _helping _Sai? She was probably putting a bigger burden on him by just being there!

She heard a couple of rounds being shot, as well as some grunts. A gun slid past her. Sakura cautiously went to retrieve it, picking it up. She held it in her other open hand, now with two guns. Noticing that Sai had already completely disarmed the Akatsuki member and was tackling him, she rushed over to do the first thing she could think of—pick up the gun that was lying right by the struggling Akatsuki member.

Tucking the two guns in the back of her pants like she had seen Sai done before, she ran over and swiped the extra weapon off the roof and pointed it down at the Akatsuki threateningly.

And for maybe the first time in the pinkette's life, she felt like a badass.

A stupid grin crept up on her face, despite the clearly dangerous situation.

Sai didn't seem amused, clocking the Akatsuki in the head with the butt of his handgun. "Sakura," he said, in between defending himself and wrestling his arm out of the fight, "guard the door!"

"Oh right!" she said stupidly, immediately turning the gun up to the open door of the stairwell.

Her gun pointed barrel to barrel with yet another gun, wielded by a rather elegant blue-haired female.

"Don't move!" Sakura yelled, as shaky as her legs. "I'll shoot!"

"Oh?" and the Akatsuki woman's perfectly black-painted lips made an O, her steel gray eyes practically mocking her.

She took a glance at the woman's black cloak, high heels, and origami flower in her hair.

Sakura must have looked like a joke in comparison to this mafia maiden.

Sai suddenly bolted in front of Sakura, holding the blond Akatsuki's neck in a death grip with the gun pressed right up to the guy's temple. "You make one step and he dies," he declared smoothly.

"It's okay, Konan!" the blond Akatsuki sputtered, but his female comrade lowered her gun, crossing her arms in deference to Sai's threat.

Strong drafts of wind and loud whirring brought Sakura's attention up to the sky. She pushed her hair out of her eyes, taking in the beauty of back-up help brought via helicopter. The helicopter hovered over the roof for a moment and slowly a ladder rolled down to their level to pick them up.

"Sakura, get onto the helicopter," Sai commanded, not moving his gaze from the Akatsuki.

Sakura quickly went over to the rungs, unsure of what to do with a third gun. She fumbled a bit, before deciding to just drop the gun onto the roof—surely she looked utterly stupid and ungraceful—and reach for the highest rung she could before lifting herself off the roof.

"Fuck!" she said to herself, not expecting the ladder to have swung back and forth once she got off the roof. "Don't look down. Don't look down," she muttered, unfreezing herself and making her way up.

What seemed like ages passed before she finally got up to the helicopter. She floundered off the ladder and into one of the seats like a dying fish wishing to be thrown back into the ocean, panting heavily and scared shitless for what seemed like the tenth time within the last hour.

The copter lurched forward suddenly and she held onto one of the handrails by her seat, started. "Wa-wait! Sai isn't on board—"

But then he appeared, unfazed, into the helicopter cabin, throwing down the blond Akatsuki member against one of the seats and swiftly handcuffing and binding him down.

"You took him with you?!"

Sai didn't reply until he rolled up the helicopter ladder to tuck back into the cabin and got into a seat. "Hostage," he briefly explained.

Sakura's mouth opened to comment and then closed. Her former neighbor just made everything seem so easy. She was barely able to get up the ladder rungs just by herself, but somehow this lanky bleached face man had made it up the ladder in record time, carrying an enemy body that was still conscious while the helicopter was leaning forward.

Sai looked out the open cabin door, making sure that they were well out of shooting range from the Akatsuki base. He then casually walked, perfectly balanced and coordinated, over to the cabin door before swinging it wide open.

"You couldn't have come any earlier, Anko?" he asked, jokingly admonishing the violet-haired pilot in the front.

"Oh, so sorry about that, Sai-_chan_," she teased, adding the diminutive to his name and poking his chest dramatically. "I'm sure you could have held out for much longer and didn't need _me _to come in and help you escape."

"You must have caught Kakashi's tardiness," he replied, brushing away her hand.

Sakura cocked her ears upon hearing the last two words. "_Sensei_?" and when the two ANBU agents looked questioningly at her, she clarified, "Kakashi-_sensei _from University of Konoha?"

"Oh, you took a class with him?" the helicopter pilot asked. "I was the one that made him late all the time," she explained, before winking.

_Kakashi…tardy…Kakashi-sensei?! The organic chemistry professor from undergrad that was always late?! An ANBU agent as well?!_

Well it wasn't like that fact should have surprised her any more than the fact that she was in a helicopter making a great escape from an international mafia organization.

Sakura was still shocked. "Wait…you're dating Kakashi?!"

"What?" Anko looked offended. "Hell no—I don't know who would ever want to be with that perv. Though apparently he's with this chick named Ayame."

Oh yes. The one and the same organic chem professorand that very ramen girl.

What a small world.

But Anko quickly turned back to business: "The Akatsuki base is in a quite remote area, huh?"

"Yeah," Sai agreed. "Wouldn't have been able to find it if it wasn't for Sakura."

At the sound of a name that was unfamiliar to her, Anko more closely regarded the pink-haired girl that had hitched onto the helicopter for a ride, giving her a brief scan. Sakura wasn't sure what if Anko approved of her or not, since Anko moved on, seeming to just notice that there was an extra person in the cabin aside from Sakura and her colleague. "You took a hostage?" she inquired Sai. "Why?"

Sai shrugged. "Why not?"

The Akatsuki member started to laugh his evil head off, and all three of them stopped in the middle of their tracks to see what in hell the bonded mafia member could have possibly found funny.

They waited for him to stop his cackling, and once the blond's chuckles faded off, a smirk tracked over his smooth-shaven jaw and his sky blue eyes. "Art…" he started.

They followed his gaze to a remote in his hand, the red button of which he immediately pressed.

"…is an explosion!"

* * *

**Well then, there ya guys go! Thanks for reading!**

**I realize that I've made Sai a bit more emotional now that we know who he is and where he's coming from. While this might be OCC, I just want to justify myself by just saying that in the actual Naruto plot, he does slowly open himself up and tries to learn emotions. Here, Sai is pretty adept at reading social cues and gives off some sort of a "stand-offish-bad-ass-cool-guy" personality, but he's still going to trip over trivial things like sarcasm or humor and is going to be giving roundabout answers to simple questions. Hopefully you guys approve of this twist!**

**Anyway, thanks for reading and once again, please review! Otherwise I'm seriously telling Rock Lee and Gai that you would just **_**love **_**to have one of their tight green full body suits and workout with them!**

**PS-I anticipate having no time in the future so I'm not going to be able to update for quite a while. Apologies! But before you guys all throw tomatoes at me, I'm just letting you guys know that I'm putting out a teaser on my blog (because I'm not publishing an entire chapter and emailing spamming everyone without it being complete). Check it out (link is on my profile), and I'll see you guys later! Poke me now and then if I'm taking too long!**

**Ja ne!**


	9. dead serious

**SO SORRY FOR THE LONGEST WAIT TIME. TADAIMASSSSSS! **

**Many many many thanks again for all the support! You guys really make me motivated to sit down and conquer those blank pages! At the beginning of the story, to be honest, I would have just dropped this story had there been no feedback from y'all, so you guys saved this story from the ashes! Anyway, on with it!**

* * *

**Chapter Nine:**

**dead serious**

* * *

By the time they had located the bomb, the red numbers were already clocked down to 13 seconds and counting.

All three of them cursed, Sai immediately running over to the cackling Akatsuki, who was intending to take down the helicopter kamikaze style. Sakura stood up as well, going over to help Sai remove the bindings that he had placed around the mafia member, but when the helicopter lurched, she stepped back into her chair. She didn't intend to fall out of the open cabin door.

The blond criminal laughed in vain, throwing the remote in his hand out of the cabin door.

Sai removed a couple knives from the back of his calves and was cutting through what binding he could as quickly as he could, not caring if he accidentally cut up some of the Akatsuki member's skin with the ropes.

7 seconds. Halfway through all the wrappings of the rope.

She quickly calculated that he wasn't going to get through both the rope and make it in time to unlock the handcuffs. She mustered what balance and coordination she had left in her system and made her way over there, demanding the key from Sai to help him get the blond off the helicopter before they all blew up in pieces.

5 seconds. Sai had found the key to the cuffs but a sudden jerk in the helicopter caused her to bump into him. The key flew off board.

4 seconds. The two of them cursed. The criminal laughed even harder.

"Just cut him from the seat—I'll lean over!" Anko yelled from the cockpit.

3 seconds. Sai got back down on his knees to cut through the remaining rope and Sakura held onto the tough fibers, hoping that she was helping with the cutting process.

2 seconds. The last half of the rope that tied him in place with the helicopter handrail.

1 second.

Sai caught Sakura by the waist and before she knew it, the cabin floor below her completely disappeared as the helicopter tilted far left. He gave the Akatsuki member a parting kick and watched the black-cloaked mafia fall into the ground far below them, blooming into a fiery yellow and orange shatter of ashes and debris.

Anko set the copter back to level, and once Sakura's feet were able to touch ground, she quickly headed over to a seat and made sure to sturdily park herself in place. Sai went ahead and closed the cabin doors.

"See, Sai, _this _is why you don't steer off course from what you're assigned, damn it," Anko reprimanded.

"I think it was worth a try to take a hostage."

"You know what I mean, number 305," the violet-haired ANBU agent refuted. "You weren't even supposed to be anywhere near Akatsuki anyway."

"I'm sorry, sir."

"You should be. Fuck, the Akatsuki know for sure that we're on their tails now, and they'll be on high alert. We'll have to cut infiltration attempts and just start offensive without much current intel on them!" She turned back to the steering of the helicopter before continuing. "You weren't even able to gather any information on them at the end of the day—except for some map that they're using to plan their activities."

Sai sat back down, not debating his superior.

Then the pilot's chocolate brown eyes flickered back to meet Sakura. "And I can't believe you dragged a _civilian_ into this!"

He gazed out the window, speechless against her criticism.

Sakura's eyebrows furrowed. "No, Sai saved me," she defended. "They kidnapped me for interrogation and he saved me! And when we were getting back, I persuaded him to go back to the Akatsuki base to rescue my friend. And besides," she added after a pause, "I know Sasuke Uchiha, who is his target, so saving me is probably advantageous to his mission."

The entire cabin and cockpit complex went quiet with Sakura's protest.

"It's not Sai's fault!" she continued. "I just happened to complicate a few things…"

Sakura was surprised to see a smile on Anko's face when she turned her head to regard the two of them in the cabin.

"Nah, don't apologize for him," Anko said. "I shouldn't have believed he'd actually protocol this one time; this kid _never _follows the rules."

"Oh, you know me so well, _sweetheart,_" Sai replied.

Confuddled once again, Sakura tilted her head in question. _Sweetheart? _So was Anko the one he had been talking to all those mornings on the phone when she spotted him while on her daily runs? Sweetheart…as in they were in a relationship?

_And an odd one at that, _she thought when coming to this quick conclusion.

"Anko's nickname is _Sweetheart_," Sai quickly explained, "because she's sweet—at least by name."

Anko smiled coyly back to Sakura. "My full name is Anko Mitarashi."

"And she eats _dango_ by the box," he added.

Sakura nodded. "Seems legit."

Sai stared at her for a full minute. "You must have thought I was talking to some girlfriend back then in the mornings."

Amazed he was able to read that right off her mind, she looked away and out the window, hoping that her cheeks weren't reddening. "I guess," she replied, changing the subject. "Wait, so how did you figure out how to save me and all that stuff?"

He waved it off like it was as simple an equation as adding two's. "I figured it out in the morning. I hadn't seen you running and your car was still in the driveway. Also, your mailbox was full so I suspected something went wrong. I went over to that ramen shop and asked your ramen girl friend for your number and tried calling you, but for some reason there wasn't any cell phone service wherever you were at."

_Oh, Ayame is going to tease me so hard about going out with Sai after this, _she thought tiredly and with a great sigh.

"So I just ended up using the location of the transmitter that I had attached earlier to your phone—"

Sakura blinked. "You what?"

"I put a tracker on you because you were a great lead to finding Sasuke and I thought it best to keep tabs on you just in case. At the end of the day, it was good that I had done so though, right?"

She disregarded his last statement. "_You tagged my phone_?!"

"You were in the bathroom one night while you were eating at my place and I took the opportunity to do so."

"…and all those papers that were all over your table weren't a novel, were they?"

"I had to keep undercover," he excused.

To be honest, placing a tracker on her had been the most sensible and acceptable option. But she was more astounded at the fact that she hadn't even been remotely aware of the fact that she could have been watched by the ANBU. After all, that nonsense only happened in spy movies and what not.

"…I still can't believe you tagged my phone," she finally said.

"At least we hadn't exchanged numbers, right? Like at that restaurant."

Sakura immediately blushed, unable to control her overflowing emotions. To think that she had actually once thought about the fact that he had never asked for her number—for trivial and flirtful romantic matters at that!

Anko spun around in her seat. "Restaurant?"

"Yeah," Sai affirmed, while Sakura resorted to holding her face in her hands in order to hide her increasing blush.

"You took her out to dinner? You didn't tell me anything about any girls, Sai."

"_Soshite_? What's there to it?"

"Nevermind," Anko said, shaking her head. She caught Sakura's eye and winked at her before turning her eyes back to the clouds.

Sakura looked away.

"You're bleeding, 305."

"Oh," Sai said, looking down at the bullet hole in his arm from their previous air vent adventures. He started to peel off his top.

Sakura offered to help dislodge the bullet. "I've interned in the emergency department of Konoha General Hospital. The least I can do to thank you is help you out with that." She spotted a small medical kit lying in a crevice underneath one of the seats on the other side and quickly fetched that before returning to Sai, sitting herself down next to the ANBU agent.

"Thanks," he said nonchalantly once she had finished dressing his wound.

"So Sai, what's the plan?" Anko asked, flipping a couple of switches on her operation board.

"You already ran that map that I uploaded through headquarters right?"

"Yeah, did you need to get to the jinchuuriki?"

Sai nodded. "Except I don't want you to drop me off directly there. Just drop me off at the nearest place I can borrow a car. I'll drive the rest of the way there."

Here, Anko turned around and furrowed her eyebrows at him quizzedly.

"Just trust me," he assured. "I'm not doing anything too crazy behind your back."

"Alright then, Sai," she sighed. "Whatever you want. I'm not even going to ask because it looks like you're going to be talking for quite a while if you're going to explain about the whole Akatsuki, jinchuuriki, Sakura, and random guy that you're trying to save."

"Right," he agreed. "I'll handle everything myself afterwards. You don't have to cover anything else for me." He stood up to make preparations but then turned back to her, adding, "Aside from not letting central know about what I'm doing."

Anko looked back at him wearily but he brushed it off.

"Thanks, _sweetie_."

"And to think that I'm your superior…" the pilot muttered murderously under her breath.

Sakura couldn't help the small smile that crept up onto her face.

"Well then, Sakura," Anko announced, her attention back on the pinkette. "I'm sorry but I have to give some bad news."

Sakura's head perked up, a slight frown replacing her grin.

"I think you know way too much about the ANBU now. What do you think, Sai?"

"Agreed," he nodded while Sakura's mouth started to gape open in trepidation. "Now that you know all that info, I don't think we have much of a choice but to force you into the ranks. We can't have you leave us with all that intel."

"What, wait—"

"I'm dead serious. In fact, we'll start now. Sai, go fetch the extra body suit that I have in the back. It should fit her."

"Wait, but I don't even—"

"Here," Sai said, tossing her black heavy fabric.

"Wait! I'm not—"

"And Sai will have to give you a nickname too, just like he has for everyone else!" Anko added, a little bit too excited to be having a new recruit. "He claims it helps him make better bonds with people."

"I hereby pronounce you _Ugly_," he announced.

Sakura completely forgot about the other disastrous situation she was in. "_Ugly?!_"

"First thing I thought of," Sai explained, with a straight face.

The pinkette turned back to the larger issue. "I can't possibly be expected to join the ANBU! I can barely do five pushups, let alone—"

"Well that'll change," Anko optimistically said. "Go on!" the pilot exclaimed, gesturing with her hand. "Go get changed and see if that suit fits you!"

Horrified, Sakura glanced between the two of them. "But—no! I can't…no!"

"Joke," Anko interrupted Sakura's ramblings.

A switch flipped on Sakura when she realized that she had been tricked and that they had not been serious at all. She pouted and descended into laughing anger, throwing the body suit at Sai's face.

The three of them let out a couple more chuckles before Sai admitted, "But really though. When we get you home, we're going to have to put you under witness protection. It's just for your own safety."

Home?

It seemed like such a foreign word to her now.

"Wait…" Sakura said, fading. "I thought…that I was going to come with you to save Naruto."

"No," Sai replied, without a moment.

"But—"

"He's right. It's too dangerous," Anko agreed.

"I'm sorry," Sai told Sakura, sitting down next to her. "And I know that I can't understand how you feel, but I promise you that I'll bring him back safe if it's the last thing that I do."

She broke eye contact from him. "Okay," she finally said after a moment.

He was right. She'd just bring more trouble.

Just like that time she had tried to get out of Sai's car to go back towards the Akatsuki base.

Mollified, Sakura softly commented. "You know…I would have never expected all of…this to happen to me a week ago."

Sai gave her a soft smile, crossing his arms. "Look," he said, getting up and producing a sack from underneath the seat.

"Today's Friday. I cooked for us," he explained, taking out containers of food, having found them in the sack after sifting through the guns that had been tossed in with them.

**waybackwhen**

"_Hey Sakura…" _

_She smelled the alcohol before she felt his hand on her ass. Swiveling around, she turned even more disgusted when the dazed expression and alcohol-happy smile on his face._

"_Shin," she greeted, taking a step back, only to bump into another body, to which she immediately apologized. When she returned to the drunken Shin, his nose was practically in her face and he staggered close. _

_She protected her drink. "Hi Shin," she repeated, unenthusiastic about needing to deal with a drunk man._

"_S-Sakuraaa," he slurred. "You're dressed pretty today."_

"_Thank you," she replied, half crossing her arms in front of her._

_Shin's eyebrows furrowed. "Watch out….your….strap is coming off your…shoulder."_

"_Oh," Sakura said, looking down to the right side of her dress. "Wait, no, my strap is fine, what—"_

"_Made you look…ha!" and he knuckle-bopped her head twice._

_She waved his hand off. "That wasn't very nice, Shin."_

"_I was just joo-king," he excused himself, poking her at the center of her chest._

_Laughing nervously, Sakura agreed, hoping that this would be the end of their conversation._

_But he kept poking her, and at some point, he had poked her abdomen. She clutched her belly, leaning forward. She felt Shin push her backwards, recovering quickly. _

_Her drink spilled a bit over her hand. "Hey what—"_

"_Are you trying to pick a fight….with me?" he snarled. "Going all kung fu on me?" His body pivoted as though he was trying to imitate some martial arts stance, but given that he wasn't sober, his arms and elbows flailed about._

_She quickly realized that he had misinterpreted her leaning forward and tried to weasel her way out of the situation. "No, Shin. Sorry about that, I was just laughing," she tried to explain, stepping backwards._

_He caught up and declined her apology, pushing her hard into the crowd of people behind her._

_Her heels and dress slipped and she landed on the floor, the glass flinging out of her hand and crashing to the ground. Getting up as quickly as possible, she stumbled a bit, her heels slowing her balance and looked up, trying to apologize to everyone behind her while taking care of the aggressive Shin._

_His hands shoved her shoulders once more and she fell again, her legs splitting underneath her. Coming up on her hands and knees, she looked up again to see Shin's red face still pugnacious. _

_Shin's foot swung up, and she covered her face quickly, looking away._

_But then he was tackled down to the ground, and even more gasps come up from the audience._

"_What the hell are you doing trying to pick a fight with a girl?" she heard a familiar voice call out._

"_Sasuke?" When she looked up, her question was confirmed as her eyes met his onyx black. _

"_You okay?"_

"_Yeah, I'm fine. Shin's just drunk—"_

"_Don't worry. I'll take care of him," Sasuke said, picking up her. "I knew coming to this free drinks party was a bad idea."_

_She looked down apologetically; it had been half her idea to come out that Friday night. But Sasuke waved her sorry off. _

"_I'm not going to let anyone hurt you."_

**presentday**

"So Sai…" Sakura suddenly asked. "How did you become part of the ANBU? What were you doing before the ANBU?"

Sai looked over at her, formulating his answer for a moment. "My life has been ANBU from the very beginning. There's not much else for me to say. ANBU is all that I've ever known."

Sakura kept her lip from twisting.

_He _had wanted to join the ANBU. _He _had wanted to stop the Akatsuki from hurting more people…

"Well there has to be something before you did all these risky operations…" Sakura suggested.

"I've never met my parents or family; I was an orphan and was practically raised by the ANBU since I was a kid. I started doing small missions in high school and once I graduated college, decided that I might as well make the ANBU my lifetime occupation."

He sat there quietly for the next few minutes before Sakura pressed, "But there has to be more than that." In her head, she added, _there had to be a time when everything was all normal for you…just like it had been for me before…_

Sai shook his head and gave her a smile. "If that were the case, I'd tell you."

"Hey _koibito_," Anko shouted backwards, interrupting their conversation. "It's t-minus 300 seconds until I'm dropping you off so make sure you're ready."

Sai stood up, going over his things a second time. Sakura looked up at him, watching his concentrated face, wanting to say some sort of encouraging words to him, but finding none. "I'm good to go, sweetheart."

"Aite then," his pilot saluted. After a couple of minutes, she gave him a signal that he was good to go. He opened up the hatch of the cabin, the wind whipping at his hair and clothing.

"Sai…" Sakura called, finally regaining the ability to confront him. "I just wanted to say thank you ag—"

He took her hand, lifting her up onto her feet and pulling her towards him, bringing her into—

And pushed her.

**afterthefall**

"Sai, I swear to God I'm _killing_ you!" Sakura snarled, once the two of them had landed on ground safely.

The raven-haired ANBU agent simply brushed down his clothing, explaining, "Well, you were coming with you, weren't you?"

"Yeah but…" and as frustrated as she was, she couldn't figure out how to argue against him. "…you don't just do that to people! You have to give them at least a warning!"

He shrugged, walking over to a sedan and producing a set of keys from his pocket. "It would have been t time efficient. If I were to tell you any details ahead of time, we would have lost a couple of seconds and probably would have landed in a less optimal spot 20 feet away."

She was already exasperated; she didn't want to further exhaust herself, instead noticing that the car that he was now unlocking looked exactly like the one that he had just driven off a cliff a short while ago. "That isn't the same car, is it?" she asked.

"I set that car on self-destruct," he replied. "We have a lot of these cars." He motioned for her to get in, which she immediately did, focusing back on saving Naruto. Sai pointed her chin at the area around them. "This happens to be one of our bases that is closest to the jinchuuriki location. We're going to be driving there."

Sakura nodded, having figured that out already. She looked out the window at the dusty desert-like climate that surrounded them. There was barely a road, only some gravel that barely made it drivable for the average car, and the only other things to look at besides the sandy horizon were the spare amount of dry twig-like brushes scattered here and here.

"Anko warned me that we were going to be driving through some closed off areas. They were battlefields and we're technically not supposed to be driving through that, so I'm going to be taking a roundabout way."

She swallowed, nodding again. "I know."

_This is where Naruto was fighting, _she couldn't prevent herself from thinking.

"We just have to make sure that we aren't spotted or that anyone is going to tattletale on us to the government, because then we'll really get questioned."

But Sakura was sure that the deep set worry in her heart wasn't because of the risk against the Fire Country that they might have been taking.

_Shikkari, Naruto, _she prayed. _We're almost there. _

**afterawhile**

They had spotted the jagged rocks in the distance and had made their way towards them, assuming that this was the potential jinchuuriki that Naruto had found his way into.

Sakura's head was swimming in negative thoughts and she was trying to keep herself positive by distracting herself.

"What's the whole deal about sierram anyway?"

"It's a natural resource…but since it carries such a high value, it's become one of those rare resources that governments are trying to take hold of," he answered. "Or the Akatsuki," he added, as an afterthought.

"But why is it so valuable?" Sakura wanted to know the cost at which Naruto's life was going to be taken had she not committed to saving him. And she hoped it was a good cost.

"Researchers have discovered that sierram has a huge potential to expel a lot of energy. It naturally draws in energy from the environment and then, when provoked, explodes. And the explosions are no laughing matter," he explained. "Sierram has been used in warfare twice by the Fire Country, experimentally, and the government seems to be satisfied by the unbridled power of sierram."

_For warfare? _Sakura couldn't answer to that.

"That's why the government and the Akatsuki are so eager to get their hands on sierram. And I can bet that the government will want to take this site out of ANBU hands as soon as we discover it." He looked over at her stoic face. "I guess that would be good because then the government will just be distracted by the new jinchuuriki that they won't ask too many specific questions about the ANBU cases surrounding the mine."

Growing more and more cynical by the second, she asked, "So what does the Akatsuki want with all the jinchuuriki? They already have eight of them…nine if you count this one."

"Who knows? Maybe they want to build a nuclear weapon or maybe they want to hold it against all the countries so that no countries can decline any of their demands."

"And all the countries can't just form an alliance and stop the Akatsuki? Take over the jinchuuriki that they have by brute force?"

This question took Sai a while to form in his head. "The Akatsuki have a massive network. They have connections with all sorts of people. And the government is full of infiltrators."

Sakura glanced at Sai, who was focused on the upcoming rock formation ahead. "But the ANBU is stopping the Akatsuki."

He didn't reply to her for a moment, before finally admitting, "We try."

She sighed, turning her eyes back to the desert.

"I was surprised that you were taken straight up to the main branch of the Akatsuki, actually," he added, after several minutes. "I didn't expect to hit the central base when I came over to rescue you…which is why I might have cost us a couple of injuries." Sakura was about to protest that Sai didn't need to apologize for something like that when he sensed that she was going to do so and immediately changed the subject on his own accord. He further elaborated, "There are ten of them in the commanding branch of the Akatsuki. We call them the Ten Fingers. And in fact, Orochimaru had been one of these Ten before they expelled him."

She drank in this additional information with a bitter aftertaste on her tongue.

All this mess for just some stupid bomb-making mineral?

They finally stopped the car in front of the rock formation that they had spotted a while back.

"This is so far. I'd be surprised if they had been able to make contact with their base," Sai remarked, stepping out of the car and striding over to the opening.

Sakura didn't reply, trying not to remind herself that there had been war in the area. She tried to forget the ghastly looking scene that they had passed on their way here. Shredded metal thrown all over the place, glints of glass and rags strewn over the landscape, the air above the sand still dust-foggy like the fight that had occurred over the land still hadn't settled…

But Naruto was more important. She went head first into the cave, so anxious that she had forgotten that she was entering pure darkness for a moment. She stepped back, bumping into Sai.

"It'd be hard to find him without a light," he said, giving her a light smile in an attempt to calm her. He passed her a flashlight. "Watch your step," he further cautioned when seeing her stumble over a rather large rock in her way.

She didn't care. She had to find him.

The sierram. She had to find the sierram, and that would lead her to Naruto.

"Naruto?" she called, hearing her ragged voice echo into the darkness. "Naruto?!"

Not hearing a reply, she just settled on going on whatever path her heart took her.

She cursed when she tripped over another rock, catching herself onto her hands and knees. Sai was quick to help her recover, a warm hand grabbing her forearm.

"You're cold," he noticed and without another word, draped a jacket over her shoulders, just before she stepped off, half running to go further into the jinchuuriki.

_They're fluorescent green. All over the place… They reminded me of you… They're kinda like your eyes when you're smiling._

The lights. They _had _to be here somewhere.

Bright white light from her flashlight bounced from side to side as she frantically continued to search for any sign of anything, calling out his name.

When she saw the odd-shaped rock, she immediately rushed over to it, making out someone's leg in the distance.

"Naruto!" she cried, rolling the body over a second before she realized that this black-haired man was not who she was looking for.

She had seen dead bodies before. She had seen gravely ill bodies before. She had seen the insides of a man twisted and scarred before.

But she discovered the man's body like she had seen death in the eye, letting out a sharp quick whimperish scream and rolling backwards a couple of steps automatically. Her flashlight slipped between her fingers and landed aside the man's foot.

Dead? Alive?

Sai, a dark figure coming in from the shadows, was stoic. He pressed his head to the man's chest and closed his eyes for a couple of seconds before pressing something into the man's hands and standing back to his feet. He waited a moment for Sakura to recover before pulling her back up.

"Come on," he urged and she swallowed hard, following his lead.

"W-what's going to happen to—"

"I just marked his body. I'll take care of him later. Your friend comes first."

She pretended to have not seen the camouflage the dead man was wearing. She ignored that fact that Naruto could have been lying in the same way.

"He bled out," Sai suddenly told her, after they had walked several more feet in. "It was a wound."

Sakura said nothing, just keeping hold of his hand. She felt Sai squeeze her hand in reassurance.

She saw the faintest glimmer of green and immediately switched off her flashlight. "Here!" she exclaimed. "Naruto? Naruto?!"

A chill ran up her spine, despite the warmth of the jacket around her shoulders.

"Naruto?"

It was here. The sierram was here.

Naruto was here.

"Naruto?!" she cried, a bit more desperately.

She had no reason to be growing more alarmed, but she couldn't help but go along with the beating of her heart. Her heartbeat was racing, and heat was gathering at her cheeks, a ball sticking to her throat. She watched Sai go on ahead of her; her own legs were crumbling beneath her.

When she saw Sai suddenly increase his speed and kneel forward, a shiver of trepidation clutched her breath and she stumbled forward to catch up to the body that Sai found.

Not Naruto.

And when his face remained emotionless after checking for vital signs, she lost hope again. Sai marked the body's location and looked back up at her wide terrorized eyes. He stepped forward, catching her and pulling her back up. "_Shikkari_, Sakura," he said, trying to soothe her and putting an arm around her shoulders to support her and keep her walking. "He'll be fine."

She wondered if he was lying to her—about the Marine that had bled out.

_They reminded me of you… They're kinda like your eyes when you're smiling._

She never had said a proper goodbye to him, had she?

She felt as dead as he was, unable to move. She noticed she was being a burden to Sai and cursed herself one last time for being so weak.

Then, at the edge of the spotlight, she saw blond.

_No_, she screamed in her head, unable to make a sound. She threw herself off Sai and hurled forward to the camouflage clad blond man, recognizing immediately the darker skin, chiseled jaw, wide shoulders, and muscular contours of her closest friend.

Whose blue eyes were closed.

She reached her hands forward, gasping, cradling his face in her hands.

Cold.

* * *

**Oh noes! Do drop a review please! I'm currently listening to the Assassin's Creed III Soundtrack and quite pleased as punch about the epic music playing in the background! **

**And maybe I'll just consider telling Jiraiya that you have a **_**larger bust size**_** than Tsunade! ****So **_**resquiescat in pace**_** if I don't hear a peep from ya! ;)**

**thir13enth**


	10. would you like fries with that?

**So I never realized that this story is actually topping one of my most popular stories on Fanfiction. This one has always been low-key and not high on my radar but it looks like I should be giving this story a bit more loooove! Thank you again, readers! (And special love goes out to my reviewers!) It's the ****one year anniversary**** of the beginning of the story! Hooray!**

**Also, my anonymous guest reviewers—thank you so much for the reviews, love, and support! I always reply to my reviewers but it sucks that I can't do that for you guys, so just as a clump to all those reviews last chapter: a big warm thank you!**

**Really quick note relevant to the story:**

**You might have noticed that there aren't any as many flashbacks as there were in the beginning anymore. I guess it's inconsistent of me to not keep writing them and just include them in the more expository part of the story. Flashbacks are a sorta cheat way for me to incorporate background information into the story really quickly. Anyway, sorry about my wily uncreative ways. I'll see if I can incorporate more flashbacks through the rest of the story to make the characterization of everyone and the whole story in general more complete. Always a work in process. :)**

**But getting on with the actual story…**

* * *

**Chapter Ten:**

**would you like fries with that?**

* * *

"Naruto," she urgently whispered. Then again. "Naruto." Her head was spinning already and the only word that was sifting through her mind—_cold_.

She felt tears closing in on her throat, her breath catching a sob.

_"Why are you crying? I'm not dead yet."_

She pulled away the heavy fabric around his body, pressing her ear against his stiff chest. She prayed for some kind of a sign that he was still there—he was just really exhausted right? There was no way that he could have been dead. He was just talking to her a few days ago. Naruto was stronger than that.

"Naruto!" she repeated, resorting to slapping his face. "Naruto!"

No response.

This drove her crazy. He was stronger than this! How could he _possibly _be dead?!

Frustrated, angry, saddened, anxious, worried, paranoid, she desperately fisted her hands, banging them against his chest. "Wake up, Naruto!" She felt Sai come in behind her, trying to calm her down and attempting to keep her hands at bay. "You're not supposed to die yet! Naruto! Naruto!"

Then a flutter. And all the world froze.

His eyelids flickered. Her breath caught.

His eyebrows crinkled and when his sky blue eyes finally opened, the first thing he saw was a mass of pink hair tackling him. Confused by the warm embrace and the familiar smell of a long-time friend, he raised his hands and pushed her away.

"Sakura?!" and even though his voice was ecstatic, her name came out sputtered from his weak body.

She found herself unable to say anything. _Thank god, you're alive. Thank god._

"Wha—what's going on?" he asked, woozily.

"You've been stuck underground for quite a while," Sai explained. "We're getting you out of here."

"Who are _you?_" Naruto demanded.

Not letting Naruto go from her grasp, Sakura explained, "It's okay, Naruto. He's my neighbor. It's fine. You're fine."

"But what's he doing all the way out here?" he asked, his eyes rolling back. "And how did you even find me? I thought I was…are you _real_?"

"It's alright, Naruto," Sakura said, hugging him once more. "I'll explain everything later."

"What's going on…"

She shushed him, helping him fall asleep, and then looked up at Sai before the two of them carried Naruto back up to the surface.

All the way back to Sai's car, she held tightly onto Naruto's hand, worried that if she let him go, she'd lose him all over again.

**later**

"Thank you," she said.

Sai kept his eyes on the road. "Of course."

Sakura quickly processed everything that had just happened within the past few days. She still wasn't sure how she felt about everything. Relieved, by far—but…

"So…what about the other bodies in the sierram mine?"

"I tagged them and reported them," Sai replied simply. "I'm sure every man in that mine will go home."

_Whether alive or not, _Sakura quickly finished Sai's sentence in her head.

"You've saved your friend now, Sakura."

She nodded, knowing what he was going to ask next.

"So now what?"

She still wasn't prepared for the question. "I don't know."

But before she could answer, a groan emerged from the back of the car.

"Sakura! So all that _was _real!" Naruto exclaimed. "Wait but…wait, how did you guys find me?"

"Sai helped me find you," Sakura explained. "He's my next door neighbor…and he was there when I got your phone call. So we found you."

Naruto waited a few more minutes for Sakura to continue, but she didn't. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"There's more to that story," Naruto said, leaning forward. "I mean, two regular civilians don't just get into a car and drive to a militant zone to save a soldier."

Sakura looked over at Sai. He gave her a quick nod.

"Well," she began after a long minute. "Sai happens to be an undercover ANBU agent. He agreed to help you get out of here."

She knew Naruto tended to overreact and she hoped that this one time Naruto wouldn't go completely berserk at this information, but to her surprise, Naruto was rather passive about this reveal.

"Huh," he said, before his head fell back to the car seat.

Sakura smiled to herself when she realized that Naruto had fallen asleep once more. Reaching back, she untucked his arm from under his head.

"I'm sorry, Sakura," Sai apologized suddenly.

Her silence asked why.

"You're so strong—having been thrown into this mess and dealing so well with all the chaos." He finally looked back towards her, onyx eyes locking onto her. "I'm happy for you, but honestly I don't understand why you risked all this to go back and save him. You were in just as serious of a situation as him, yet you still stopped and went back."

At this point, she couldn't take his gaze anymore, and she looked out the passenger window.

"You do things for the people you care most about," she said.

"And Naruto is someone I care about. A whole lot."

**midafternoon**

_"So now what?"_

Sakura fumbled Sai's question in her mind, flipping it over and tasting it until she got sick of it.

There were still so many unanswered questions. What did the Akatsuki want with her? Just Sasuke? And what did the Akatsuki want with Sasuke? With sierram?

What did Sasuke want? Why was he wrecking havoc? Just because he was working for a crime organization? Out of spite? Because he was forced to?

What about the man that looked just like him? His brother? Why did he not shoot them? Why was this man in the Akatsuki?

And then not just that—what did the ANBU want with Sasuke and the Akatsuki? What was the _real_ relationship between all three of them? And who was it that Sai had mentioned? Orochimaru? Who was he? What was he even planning, being head of a crime organization?

In the midst of furrowing eyebrows, Naruto came to.

"Fuck, I don't know about you guys, but I'm hungry."

His comment was so unexpected that Sakura couldn't help but laugh.

Sai's eyes trailed off the road and read a passing highway sign. "We'll stop by to grab something to eat." His hands turned right to make towards the exit.

"Ramen, please," Naruto suggested.

"Of course," Sakura sighed.

"It's the food of the gods."

**flashback**

_"It's because I care about you!" she blurted. "I can't see you doing that to yourself!"_

_Sasuke pressed his forehead between his fists. "Why do you care? Just fucking stop. I'm not worth your time."_

_Sakura's voice practically came out in a snarl. "I determine who I care about, and I think that you can't just take that for granted."_

_"Okay!" the raven-haired teenager retorted. "Then I'll take you for granted. I can deal with being a bastard if you stop pestering me."_

_Her emerald eyes darkened with grief. "Why? Why are you letting yourself suffer?"_

_His entire face was turned away from her. She couldn't read anything from his still posture._

_"Don't tell me you're punishing yourself," she said, breathing out the concern that she had always worried about. These words barely made it past her lips and they were nothing more than a whisper absorbed in the heavy tense air._

_The thick silence almost choked her. Or perhaps it was the accumulating tears in her throat._

_"I don't know, Sakura. I don't know," Sasuke finally confessed._

_Naruto looked between the two of them before leaning forward and admitting, "Geez, I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving to death here."_

_After a moment, Sakura suddenly sputtered into laughter, unable to take in the two conflicting emotions she was hearing. She couldn't stop laughing, sharp bells of happiness emerging from her lungs. Somewhere along the line, Naruto began to see the ridiculousness of the whole situation, and his deeper chuckles underscored Sakura's giggles. They laughed for at least a minute, Sasuke still scowling._

_But he broke thirty seconds later, and all three clutched their hurting bellies._

**backtothepresent**

The sight must have been strange—two men donning very non-civilian clothing and a woman that looked as though she had just escaped from the jungle.

"I'm just acting as normal as possible, you know?" Naruto said to her while waiting for their order.

"Right, by ordering enough food for a family of four kids and two monsters," Sakura retorted.

"Exactly! I'm starving! I was hiding there for at least two days!"

Sai smiled, before excusing himself to take a restroom break.

Not even after few steps, Sakura turned to Naruto. "I was so worried about you."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I was worried you'd be worried about me."

"How would I have _not _worry about you?"

He shook his head. "Once I get back to Konoha, they'll probably reassign me to another location."

Her mouth gaped open. "No, they couldn't. Not after what you went through. After you get debriefed, no! That would be—"

"And besides, I kinda want to fight more," he interrupted. "I mean, some people don't get the chance to receive honor and pride while kicking ass." He looked back at her, blue eyes genuinely sparkling. "I'm going to fight as much as I damn can!"

She looked away, hiding her twisted mouth.

**flashback**

_"Sakura! I'm sorry!" Naruto said, once more, trying to win back the pinkette's attention._

_She turned up her nose and stormed off, after having served her thirty minutes of playground detention. _

_Her first _ever _detention._

_She couldn't believe that he made her get in trouble._

_"You were the one that started it," she simply said, not forgiving him._

_"I already said sorry! I mean, it's not my fault that you're in detention!" Naruto replied. "If anything, you should have talked back to Iruka-sensei!"_

_Sakura whirled around on her heel. "Talk back to the sensei?! That's ridiculous! You don't do that!"_

_"Well yeah but—"_

_"Why are you always making so much trouble, Naruto? Geez," Sakura sighed, exasperated. She flipped around again, heading out the classroom door and making sure to walk faster than him. There was no way that the other kids on the playground were going to see her—the head of the class—walking with the dead last—even if he was her friend—out of the detention room._

_She almost didn't hear his answer, but it wafted in the air and stuck in her head._

_"Would you know my name otherwise?"_

**eatingramen**

"So uh, how did you get to know this…Sai, or whatever his name is?" Naruto said, rolling his chopsticks together before mumbling a quick itadakimasu.

"Oh god," Sakura sighed. "It's a long ass story."

Naruto shrugged, dipping his chopsticks into the broth. "Well, I'm not going anywhere."

"But for the most part, it's about Sasuke being a criminal."

The blond choked on a noodle. Sakura felt a vibe of 'what the hell' coming from the army man. But then the two of them noticed Sai coming back towards them from the bathroom.

"You owe me a better explanation," Naruto concluded.

Sai, quite awkwardly, took a seat across the two of them.

Naruto watched him for a second before asking casually, "So what's going to happen next?"

"Well," Sai said, pulling up a gun to Naruto's head. "You tell me."

* * *

**Haha! Well then! How about that review? :P (else I'll let Gai know that you want to join in his daily morning exercise routine all next month!)**

**thir13enth**


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